We need to renew our scientific lexicon, argues Evelyn Fox Keller, if we are to meet the challenges set by emerging fields like systems biology. Current scientific "ways of knowing"' are built around nouns and committed to entity realism, Keller argues. They are thus unsuited to encompassing the dynamic interactivity of living systems that has become the chief object of investigation in a growing range of scientific fields, notably ecology and epigenetics as well as systems biology. Keller suggests that other linguistic traditions, perhaps those that are verb- rather than noun-oriented, might offer resources for developing a better-adapted scientific lexicon.
But perhaps Indo-European grammatical categories like noun and verb are in themselves an obstacle, an ingrained element of a supposedly "universal" but in fact inherently anglophone scientific expression whose limits we need to recognize. As her argument unfolds, we realize that Keller is using the distinction between noun and verb as a metaphorical relationship, equivalent perhaps to that between node and edge in flowchart diagramming.? Although I shall continue to use Keller's labels noun and verb for convenience in what follows, I would argue that her essay makes the case for the value not so much of thinking with verbs per se as of thinking with specific verbs that denote process or relationship (to grow, to change, to respond, to become); with particular verbal forms, notably auxiliary verbs and modes of conjugation that express potential and flexibility (might, must, could, should), and gerunds, that in themselves convey process (growing, becoming); and with the prepositions (to, from, by, with, etc.) attached to verbs that likewise express relationships.
In seeking better ways to express complex and contingent relationships or systems in transformation, there is certainly much to be gained by reflecting on the resources offered by other linguistic traditions. For many reasons—political, institutional, and linguistic—English replaced Latin, then French, and finally German as the...
