dc.contributor.author | Green, S | |
dc.contributor.author | Dietrich, M | |
dc.contributor.author | Leonelli, S | |
dc.contributor.author | Ankeny, R | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-10-31T11:23:57Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2018-10-31 | |
dc.description.abstract | Many biologists appeal to the so-called Krogh principle when justifying their choice of
experimental organisms. The principle states that “for a large number of problems there will be
some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied”.
Despite its popularity, the principle is often critiqued for implying unwarranted generalizations
from optimal models. We argue that the Krogh principle should be interpreted in relation to
the historical and scientific contexts in which it has been developed and used. We interpret the
Krogh Principle as a heuristic, i.e., as a recommendation to approach biological problems
through organisms where a specific trait or physiological mechanism is expected to be most
distinctively displayed or most experimentally accessible. We designate these organisms “Krogh
organisms.” We clarify the differences between uses of model organisms and non-standard
Krogh organisms. Among these is the use of Krogh organisms as “negative models” in
biomedical research, where organisms are chosen for their dissimilarity to human physiology.
Importantly, the representational scope of Krogh organisms and the generalizability of their
characteristics are not fixed or assumed but explored through experimental studies. Research
on Krogh organisms is steeped in the comparative method characteristic of zoology and
comparative physiology, in which studies of biological variation produce insights into general
physiological constraints. Accordingly, we conclude that the Krogh principle exemplifies the
advantages of studying biological variation as a strategy to produce generalizable insights. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | We acknowledge funding support from the Australian Government via the Australian Research
Council (ARC) Discovery Project funding scheme via DP160102989: "Organisms and Us: How
Living Things Help Us to Understand Our World" (2016-20). | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 40 (65). Published online 31 October 2018. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1007/s40656-018-0231-0 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/34564 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Springer Verlag / Stazione Zoologica | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. | |
dc.subject | August Krogh Principle | |
dc.subject | experimental organisms | |
dc.subject | comparative physiology | |
dc.subject | adaptation | |
dc.subject | generalization | |
dc.subject | model organisms | |
dc.title | ‘Extreme’ Organisms and the Problem of Generalization: Interpreting the Krogh Principle | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.identifier.issn | 0391-9714 | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this record. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences | en_GB |