 It is also important to point out what this article is not about. There are already a number of entries in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) that deal specifically with genes, genetics and also the HGP, and the present entry will not, therefore, address in much detail the history of, or the philosophical issues surrounding, the concept of the ‘gene’ (see SEP entry  gene,  but also the entries  molecular biology,  molecular genetics, and  the human genome project),  or the history of the HGP (see SEP entry,  the human genome project).  Broader issues that also play a role in genomics, such as the notion of biological information and the issue of reductionism have also been discussed in a set of SEP entries (for more on reductionism see  reductionism in biology;  gene;  HGP;  and  molecular genetics  and for more on the metaphor of a ‘genetic program’ and biological information see entries on  biological information;  gene;  molecular genetics;  and  molecular biology).  Furthermore, and probably most importantly of all, our focus here will be on the epistemological, ontological and methodological issues raised by genomics rather than the ethical, legal and social issues that the sequencing of DNA inevitably brings up (but see  HGP  entry for more on these topics).