MODEL ORGANISMS AND BEHAVIORAL-GENETICS - A REJOINDER

In this rejoinder to the three preceding comments, I provide some addi tional philosophical warrant for the biomedical sciences' focus on mod el organisms. I then relate the inquiries on model systems to the conc ept of 'deep homology', and indicate that the issues that appear to di vide my commentators and myself are in part empirical ones. I cite rec ent work on model organisms, and especially C. elegans that supports m y views. Finally, I briefly readdress some of the issues raised by Dev elopmental Systems Theory.