ABSTRACT Through the comparison between two major, long-lasting theoretical frameworks – geocentrism and genocentrism – we discuss the different epistemological role played by metaphors in physics and biology. Throughout its history, physics developed theories and mathematical formalisms, which either do not seem to rely on metaphors at all (as geocentrism) or have absorbed initial thrusting metaphors into original theoretical frameworks. When considering genocentrism, in turn, the situation looks different. For some authors, genocentric theories are not metaphorical, but for opposite reasons with respect to geocentrism: pivotal concepts of information theories are straightforwardly imported as theoretical ones into biology. For others, the reference to information in genocentrism is indeed metaphorical, although the similarities and dissimilarities are not spelt out. Some problematic consequences of the application of genocentrism to biology are discussed.

中文翻译：

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地心主义与基因中心主义：没有隐喻的理论，没有理论的隐喻

摘要通过比较两个主要的、长期存在的理论框架——地心说和基因中心说——我们讨论了隐喻在物理学和生物学中所扮演的不同认识论作用。纵观其历史，物理学发展了理论和数学形式主义，它们要么似乎根本不依赖隐喻（如地心说），要么将最初的推力隐喻吸收到原始理论框架中。反过来，在考虑基因中心主义时，情况看起来有所不同。对于一些作者来说，基因中心论不是隐喻，而是出于与地心说相反的原因：信息论的关键概念直接作为理论概念导入生物学。对于其他人来说，基因中心主义中对信息的引用确实是隐喻的，虽然没有说明相同点和不同点。讨论了将基因中心论应用于生物学的一些有问题的后果。