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On the Normativity of the Immune System

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Medicine Studies

Abstract

In the 1940s, Georges Canguilhem has established the concept of biological normativity on the level of the organism in his key work on “The Normal and the Pathological”. We would like to present a contemporary analysis of Canguilhem’s work, set it in context with more recent results from the field of complexity and immunology, and evaluate the problematic whether normativity is a genuine capacity of the organism. Based on Canguilhem’s conditions of the definition of biological normativity, we show that the immune system as one of the complex systems of the living equally shares the capacity to be normative. We will then conclude that normativity can also be conceptually independently displayed on the level of complex systems of the living.

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Notes

  1. A nominal analysis of the concept of Normativity has been previously established by Korsgaard (1996).

  2. Hucklenbroich (2007: 77–90).

  3. A very comprehensive introduction to the life and work of Canguilhem has been written by Debru (2004); alternatively: Borck (2005).

  4. Canguilhem (1943).

  5. Jerne (1974: 373–389).

  6. Leriche (1936).

  7. Canguilhem (1965: 159).

  8. Trnka (2003: 431).

  9. Walliser (1977).

  10. Canguilhem (1966).

  11. Bernard (1984).

  12. Kauffman (1993).

  13. Canguilhem (1978: 121).

  14. Canguilhem (1994).

  15. Canguilhem (1978: 68).

  16. Canguilhem (1978: 138).

  17. The following papers should give an overview on the field of immune tolerance: Sakaguchi et al. (2008), St. Clair et al. (2007), Keir et al. (2008).

  18. Canguilhem (1978: 124).

  19. Canguilhem (1978: 121).

  20. Canguilhem (1978: 129).

  21. Pradeu and Carosella (2006).

  22. A developed analysis of biologic identity has been presented by: Pradeu (2006). There is an elaborated literature in the field of actions of the individual (e.g., Frankfurt HG “The Problem of Action”, American Philosophical Quarterly, 15: 157–162) but this does not take into account actions of other organized entities such as systems, which lack a single agent. Further interdisciplinary analysis would be needed in order to obtain clarification on action in such entities.

  23. Canguilhem (1978: 124f).

  24. Canguilhem (1978: 72).

  25. Canguilhem (1978: 76).

  26. Canguilhem (1978: 81).

  27. Canguilhem (1978: 108).

  28. Canguilhem (1978: 121).

  29. Trnka (2003: 431).

  30. Goldstein (1951: 178).

  31. Hardcastle (2002: 149f).

  32. Canguilhem (1978).

  33. Ashby (1948: 380).

  34. Von Bertalanffy: (1973).

  35. Walliser (1977: 27).

  36. Debru (1993: 113–114).

  37. Kauffman (1993).

  38. Kauffman (1993: 192).

  39. Kauffman (1993: 170 ff).

  40. Goldstein (1933: 430).

  41. Fawcett translates “comportement privilégié” as preferential behaviour. We would like to point out that Canguilhem’s original terms state that such behavior may not only represent a preference but also be rooted in a privilege, i.e., “being invested with a privilege/special freedom or immunity/granted with a particular right or immunity”, Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Vol. XII, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989, p. 523.

  42. Canguilhem (1978: 107).

  43. Goldstein (1951: 345).

  44. Canguilhem (1978: 137).

  45. Canguilhem (1978: 121).

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  1. CIRPHLES USR 3308, Department of Philosophy, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 45, Rue D’Ulm, Paris, France

    Amin T. Turki

  2. Tumor and Transplantation Immunology Laboratory, Clinic I for Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Amin T. Turki

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Turki, A.T. On the Normativity of the Immune System. Medicine Studies 3, 29–39 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12376-011-0061-9

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