In defense of the organism: Thomas Pradeu (Elizabeth Vitanza, trans.): The limits of the self: immunology and biological identity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, ix+302 pp, ISBN: 978-0-19-977528-6, $65 HB.

Update Item Information
Publication Type pre-print
School or College College of Humanities
Department Philosophy
Creator Haber, Matthew
Title In defense of the organism: Thomas Pradeu (Elizabeth Vitanza, trans.): The limits of the self: immunology and biological identity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, ix+302 pp, ISBN: 978-0-19-977528-6, $65 HB.
Date 2014-01-01
Description Thomas Pradeu's The Limits of the Self provides a precise account of biological identity developed from the central concepts of immunology. Yet the central concepts most relevant to this task (self and nonself ) are themselves deemed inadequate, suffering from ambiguity and imprecision. Pradeu seeks to remedy this by proposing a new guiding theory for immunology, the continuity theory. From this, an account of biological identity is provided in terms of uniqueness and individuality, ultimately leading to a defense of the heterogeneous organism as expressing the highest degree of individuality. Organisms are under attack. Pathogens, environmental stress, and endogenous factors, among many others, threaten the survival of an organism. To persist, organisms must be able to mount an effective response, and a variety of strategies for regulating these stressors have evolved. Collectively, these are the immune system. The organism is also under attack as a scientific concept. Samir Okasha (2011) has argued that organism is an anachronistic hierarchical rank, and that we should abandon this vestige of classification in favor of a rank-free ecological hierarchy. I have argued for a neighboring view (Haber 2013), observing that the term organism, much like species, is used to refer to a disparate group of entities, and that we ought to follow the lead of species eliminativists like Marc Ereshefsky (1992) and Brent Mishler (1999) and ‘get rid of organisms'.
Type Text
Publisher Springer
Volume 29
Issue 6
First Page 885
Last Page 895
Language eng
Bibliographic Citation Haber, M. H. (2014). In defense of the organism: Thomas Pradeu (Elizabeth Vitanza, trans.): The limits of the self: immunology and biological identity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012, ix+302 pp, ISBN: 978-0-19-977528-6, $65 HB. Biology and Philosophy, 29(6), 885-95.
Rights Management (c) Springer (The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com) The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10539-014-9457-8
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 700,288 bytesw
Identifier uspace,19200
ARK ark:/87278/s6sf65bz
Setname ir_uspace
ID 713185
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6sf65bz
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