Moving beyond the influence of molecular genetics on the debate about reductionism in philosophy of biology

The rise of molecular genetics has had a fundamental influence on the development of philosophy of biology because of its central role in the debate concerning reductionism. I begin by describing notable attempts to reduce Mendelian genetics to molecular genetics, the lightning rod of reductionist attempts in philosophy of biology. I then suggest that the syntactic reductionist may wish to focus on neglected biological cases (e.g. ecosystem evolution) that may eventually yield laws that could provide easier reduction than the attempted reduction in genetics.