ABSTRACT Metaphor is indispensable to science. Evelyn Fox Keller has argued argue that there is a commonality between the metaphors of gene action, and that of a genetic program. I suggest that the common thread is that of executive control or agency. The genetic program metaphor has progressively undergone a process that William James called ‘vicious abstractionism’, in which an abstract concept is erroneously made concrete; the metaphorical conceit has become metaphysical commitment. I use a natural meaning approach to illocutionary force to ask whether genes really are programs, whether they issue commands to the developmental systems. I argue that it is more plausible to suppose that developmental systems issue commands to genes. Agency or executive control more properly lies with the organism.

中文翻译：

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动作、程序、隐喻

摘要 隐喻是科学不可或缺的。伊夫林·福克斯·凯勒 (Evelyn Fox Keller) 争辩说，基因作用的隐喻与遗传程序的隐喻之间存在共性。我建议共同点是执行控制或代理。遗传程序的隐喻逐渐经历了威廉詹姆斯称之为“恶性抽象主义”的过程，在这个过程中，抽象的概念被错误地具体化；隐喻的自负已成为形而上学的承诺。我对言外之意使用自然意义方法来询问基因是否真的是程序，它们是否向发育系统发出命令。我认为，假设发育系统向基因发出命令更为合理。机构或执行控制更恰当地在于有机体。