Historical-narrative explanations

Historians of science, professional training of, 7 Historical biogeography, 54, 225, 233 Historical homology, 202 Historical-narrative explanations (H-NEs),... 

H-NEs, see Historical-narrative explanations Homeobox sequence, 266, 269 Homeotic genes, 269 Homodynamy, 202 Homogeny, 198, 199, 201 Homologue(s)... 

Nomological-Deductive Explanations (N-DEs) Historical-Narrative Explanations (H-NEs)... 

Two different, but interrelated systems of explanations exist in biology, which are (a) the dichotomy of N-DEs versus H-NEs, and (b) the dichotomy of functional explanations versus evolutionary explanations. The latter system stems from the division of biology into the major areas of functional and evolutionary biology (Mayr, 1982). These two systems of explanations in biology do not have a simple relationship to one another. All functional explanations are N-DEs and all H-NEs are evolutionary, but evolutionary explanations can be either N-DEs or H-NEs. Hence it is essential not only to characterize carefully the properties of N-DEs and H-NEs, but to show which parts of biology, and especially of evolutionary biology, are nomological-deductive and which are historical narrative. 

At this point, I want to express my delight over the extensive historical treatment given to Boerhaave at this workshop. He has been another casualty of the development of a canonical master narrative of the Chemical Revolution despite his significance for eighteenth-century chemists and for Lavoisier, he has essentially been eliminated from this narrative. Powers provides some explanation for this in terms of the puzzlement and even hostility of the constructors of this narrative to Boerhaave s instrumental matter theory. 

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