A Deep Unity between Scientific Disciplines

Cédric Gaucherel

French Institute of Pondicherry, IFP-CNRS, Pondicherry, India;UMR AMAP-INRA, Montpellier, France.

DOI: 10.4236/ojpp.2013.33061                

Abstract

Are scientific disciplines really different? This question often crystallizes into the old debate: Are Physics and Biology different? If Physics and Biology worked on highly different entities (objects), or if they had highly different methods, it would be straightforward to close the debate by a negative answer. However, if we cannot identify any differences, we should explore more deeply the status of the laws found in Physics and questioned in Biology. By slightly modifying the definition of what is a law, I argue here that both disciplines possess some laws exhibiting various “degrees of confirmation”. I finally propose explanations for why P and B give the illusion differing radically, although they both belong to the same continuum of a unified scientific domain.

Keywords

Scientific Law; Unicity; Contingency; Universality; Neutral Model; Evolution; Gravitation

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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