The Formation of the Theory of Homology in Biological Sciences

Abstract

Homology is among the most important comparative concepts in biology. Today, the evolutionary reinterpretation of homology is usually conceived of as the most important event in the development of the concept. This paradigmatic turning point, however important for the historical explanation of life, is not of crucial importance for the development of the concept of homology itself. In the broadest sense, homology can be understood as sameness in reference to the universal guarantor so that in this sense the different concepts of homology show a certain kind of "metahomology". This holds in the old morphological conception, as well as in the evolutionary usage of homology. Depending on what is (or was) taken as a guarantor, different types of homology may be distinguished (as idealistic, historical, developmental etc.). This study represents a historical overview of the development of the homology concept followed by some clues on how to navigate the pluralistic terminology of modern approaches to homology.

Perceive, Co-opt, Modify, and Live! Organism as a Centre of Experience

“…Eventually, seeking paralogies in different levels of organization may lead to the general description of different phenomena caused by the same process of duplication. Paralogy is just one concept within the rich terminological framework built upon the theory of homology, probably the most important concept in all comparative biology (Kleisner 2007). In the following discussion we will focus on a particular phenomenon bordering the genetic, developmental and morphological perspectives that have a special relation to paralogy.…”

Experiencias y reflexiones en la enseñanza de la Homologi ay Homoplasia en uun colegio secundario.

“…que rodean al trabajo científico, al igual que los intereses, creencias y valores sustentados por los científicos. El abordaje histórico de la formación de un concepto clarifica su significado al poner de manifiesto los factores mencionados, y es una aproximación muy eficaz para enseñar numerosas temáticas biológicas (Kleisner, 2007). El par de nociones analizadas son muy particulares de la Biología, cuya filosofía deja de lado cuestiones generales, como la discusión de modelos y leyes y se centra en sus propios problemas (Pradeu, 2009) de los que aquellos son centrales.…”

“…Y, luego de la edición de dicho trabajo, comenzó un debate sobre este término que aún no termina. Aunque para fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX ya tenía un significado más o menos similar al actual (Kleisner, 2007), se han multiplicado las definiciones y los alcances del concepto según la disciplina y uso que se les da, al punto que en la actualidad se han publicado numerosas monografías específicas sobre el tema (Sanderson y Hufford, 1996;Bock y Cardew, 2007;Brigandt y Griffiths, 2007;Pavlinov, 2011).…”

Homosemiosis, mimicry and superficial similarity: notes on the conceptualization of independent emergence of similarity in biology

“…The concept of similarity has been variously discussed together with the terms as homology, analogy and homoplasy. 1 The problem is that there is a diversity of uses of these terms, so that different authors often appreciate different use of these terms for various often special reasons (Kleisner 2007). Moreover, there is a large amount of recent literature on this disputable topic (see specialized collections on homology : Hall 1994;Bock and Cardew 1999;Richter and Olsson 2005;and homoplasy: Sanderson and Hufford 1996).…”