Chapter 1: ‘Genes’ and ‘information’ as conceptual problems
Chapter 1: ‘Genes’ and ‘information’ as conceptual problems

Summary/Abstract: The gene concept has certainly been one of the landmarks in the history of science in the 20th century. Gelbart (1998) and Keller (2000), for instance, call it ‘the century of the gene’. Grós (1989), by his turn, claims that we live in a ‘civilization of the gene’. Moss (2003) treats the gene as the central organizing theme of 20th century biology. Nevertheless, the definition of the term ‘gene’ remains a matter of dispute, despite the central role it plays in biological thinking. Furthermore, another concept closely related to that of a ‘gene’, namely, the concept of ‘information’, is also a matter of contention, and, in fact, continues to be an open issue in biology in general, and not only in genetics or molecular biology. The goal of this book is to contribute to the debates about the concepts of gene and information by employing theoretical and methodological tools offered by semiotics, and, in particular, by Peirce’s theory of signs.

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