Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Organisms or biological individuals? Combining physiological and evolutionary individuality

  • Published:
Biology & Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The definition of biological individuality is one of the most discussed topics in philosophy of biology, but current debate has focused almost exclusively on evolution-based accounts. Moreover, several participants in this debate consider the notions of a biological individual and an organism as equivalent. In this paper, I show that the debates would be considerably enriched and clarified if philosophers took into account two elements. First, physiological fields are crucial for the understanding of biological individuality. Second, the category of biological individuals should be divided into two subcategories: physiological individuals and evolutionary individuals, which suggests that the notions of organism and biological individual should not be used interchangeably. I suggest that the combination of an evolutionary and a physiological perspective will enable biologists and philosophers to supply an account of biological individuality that will be both more comprehensive and more in accordance with scientific practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. This can be done both within biology and between biology and other scientific fields, e.g., physics (Guay and Pradeu 2016).

  2. “Every living being is not a unity but a plurality”, quoted by Bernard (1974).

  3. “Nutrition is the continuous mutation of the particles that constitute the living being” (what Bernard also calls “molecular renovation”).

  4. The concept of homeostasis is still widely used in today’s physiology, e.g., Rowland (1998), Cowley (2003), Walz (2005), DiBona (2005). For a historical account, see Cooper (2008).

  5. Of course, developmental individuality can be explored for its own sake in extremely stimulating ways (e.g., Gottlieb 1992; Minelli 2011), but as soon as one conceives physiological individuality as concerning a unit of functioning from its beginning to its end, it includes the development of that unit.

  6. It is even related to at least some understandings of biological individuality in ecology, where the focus is on understanding the nature and extent of interactions among constituent parts within an ecosystem (Huneman 2014).

  7. In the second chapter of the book (“Physiology beyond the organism”), Turner (2000) says that the science studying these higher-level physiological units can be called “physiological ecology”, “ecophysiology”, or “environmental physiology” (p. 9). Later, he speaks of “superorganismal physiology” (p. 179). See also Seeley (1995), Sober and Wilson (1998).

  8. Other examples include the immunological delineation in social insects where, sometimes, the immunological unit is the “superorganism” (Cremer and Sixt 2009; Pradeu 2012).

  9. For space reasons, I will not analyse here another concept that has been widely discussed, namely Griesemer’s (2000) concept of a reproducer.

  10. Contrary to a frequent assumption, horizontal associations are not necessarily more recent and less indispensable for the host than vertical associations (McFall-Ngai 2002; Ebert 2013).

  11. Interestingly, some models of biological entities switching from a unicellular to a multicellular state can be useful to better explore this issue. For example, it has been shown that, when the multicellular stage (“slug”) of Dictyostelium discoideum is constituted, some cells specialize in an immune phagocytic activity (Chen et al. 2007), a question now explored by Queller and Strassmann, and others (Brock et al. 2016).

References

  • Anderton SM, Wraith DC (2002) Selection and fine-tuning of the autoimmune T-cell repertoire. Nat Rev Immunol 2:487–498. doi:10.1038/nri842

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnellos A, Moreno A, Ruiz-Mirazo K (2013) Organizational requirements for multicellular autonomy: insights from a comparative case study. Biol Philos 29:851–884. doi:10.1007/s10539-013-9387-x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bäckhed F, Ley RE, Sonnenburg JL et al (2005) Host-bacterial mutualism in the human intestine. Science 307:1915–1920. doi:10.1126/science.1104816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bechtel W (2006) Discovering cell mechanisms: the creation of modern cell biology. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernard C (1974) [1878] Lectures on the phenomena of life common to animals and plants. Thomas, Springfield

  • Bock WJ (1989) Organisms as functional machines: a connectivity explanation. Am Zool 29:1119–1132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bosch TCG, McFall-Ngai MJ (2011) Metaorganisms as the new frontier. Zool Jena Ger 114:185–190. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2011.04.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard F (2008) Causal processes, fitness, and the differential persistence of lineages. Philos Sci 75:560–570. doi:10.1086/594507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard F, Huneman P (2013) From groups to individuals: perspectives on biological associations and emerging individuality. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Bright M, Bulgheresi S (2010) A complex journey: transmission of microbial symbionts. Nat Rev Microbiol 8:218–230. doi:10.1038/nrmicro2262

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brock DA, Callison WÉ, Strassmann JE, Queller DC (2016) Sentinel cells, symbiotic bacteria and toxin resistance in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Proc R Soc B 283:20152727. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.2727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchman TG (2002) The community of the self. Nature 420:246–251. doi:10.1038/nature01260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnet FM (1960) Immunological recognition of self. Nobel Lect Physiol Med 3:689–701

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnet FM (1962) The integrity of the body: a discussion of modern immunological ideas. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Burnet FM (1969) Cellular immunology: self and notself. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Buss LW (1987) The evolution of individuality. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Canguilhem G (1994a) [1963] La constitution de la physiologie comme science. Etudes d’histoire et de philosophies des sciences concernant les vivants et la vie. Vrin, Paris, pp 226–273

  • Canguilhem G (1994b) [1966] Le tout et la partie dans la pensée biologique. Etudes d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences concernant le vivant et la vie. Vrin, Paris, pp 319–333

  • Cannon WB (1926) Physiological regulation of normal states. Some tentative postulates concerning biological homeostasis. In: Pettit A (ed) À Charles Richet, ses amis, ses collègues, ses élèves. Les Editions médicales, Paris, pp 91–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Cannon WB (1929) Organization for physiological homeostasis. Physiol Rev 9:399–431

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen G, Zhuchenko O, Kuspa A (2007) Immune-like phagocyte activity in the social amoeba. Science 317:678–681. doi:10.1126/science.1143991

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung T (2006) From the organism of a body to the body of an organism: occurrence and meaning of the word “organism” from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Br J Hist Sci 39:319–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung T (2010) What is an “Organism”? On the occurrence of a new term and its conceptual transformations 1680–1850. Hist Philos Life Sci 32:155–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Child CM (1915) Individuality in organisms. The University of Chicago press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chu H, Mazmanian SK (2013) Innate immune recognition of the microbiota promotes host–microbial symbiosis. Nat Immunol 14:668–675. doi:10.1038/ni.2635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke E (2011) The problem of biological individuality. Biol Theory 5:312–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke E (2013) The multiple realizability of biological individuals. J Philos 8:413–435

  • Cohen IR (2000) Tending Adam’s garden: evolving the cognitive immune self. Academic Press, San Diego

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper SJ (2008) From Claude Bernard to Walter Cannon. Emergence of the concept of homeostasis. Appetite 51:419–427. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.06.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowley AW (2003) Genomics and homeostasis. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 284:R611–R627. doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00567.2002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cremer S, Sixt M (2009) Analogies in the evolution of individual and social immunity. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 364:129–142. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damuth J, Heisler IL (1988) Alternative formulations of multilevel selection. Biol Philos 3:407–430. doi:10.1007/BF00647962

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dausset J (1981) The major histocompatibility complex in man. Science 213:1469–1474. doi:10.1126/science.6792704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DiBona GF (2005) Physiology in perspective: the wisdom of the body. Neural control of the kidney. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 289:R633–R641. doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00258.2005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duchesneau F (1987) Genèse de la théorie cellulaire. Bellarmin, Vrin, Montréal, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Duchesneau F (2010) Leibniz: le vivant et l’organisme. Vrin, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Dupré J, O’Malley M (2009) Varieties of living things: life at the intersection of lineage and metabolism. Philos Theory Biol. doi:10.3998/ptb.6959004.0001.003

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebert D (2013) The epidemiology and evolution of symbionts with mixed-mode transmission. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 44:623–643. doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-032513-100555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge N (1984) Large-scale biological entities and the evolutionary process. PSA Proc Bienn Meet Philos Sci Assoc 1984:551–566. doi:10.1086/psaprocbienmeetp.1984.2.192526

    Google Scholar 

  • Faith JJ, Guruge JL, Charbonneau M et al (2013) The long-term stability of the human gut microbiota. Science 341:1237439. doi:10.1126/science.1237439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner A, Grafen A (2009) Capturing the superorganism: a formal theory of group adaptation. J Evol Biol 22:659–671. doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2008.01681.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Germain RN (2012) Maintaining system homeostasis: the third law of Newtonian immunology. Nat Immunol 13:902–906. doi:10.1038/ni.2404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert SF, Sapp J, Tauber AI (2012) A symbiotic view of life: we have never been individuals. Q Rev Biol 87:325–341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith P (2009) Darwinian populations and natural selection. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith P (2013) Darwinian individuals. In: Bouchard F, Huneman P (eds) From groups to individuals: evolution and emerging individuality. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 17–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith P (2014) Philosophy of biology. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb G (1992) Individual development and evolution: the genesis of novel behavior. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ, Lewontin RC (1979) The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 205:581–598. doi:10.1098/rspb.1979.0086

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ, Lloyd EA (1999) Individuality and adaptation across levels of selection: how shall we name and generalize the unit of Darwinism? Proc Natl Acad Sci 96:11904–11909. doi:10.1073/pnas.96.21.11904

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griesemer J (2000) Development, culture, and the units of inheritance. Philos Sci 67:S348–S368. doi:10.1086/392831

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guay A, Pradeu T (2016) Individuals across the sciences. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Haldane JS (1929) Claude Bernard’s conception of the internal environment. Science 69:453–454. doi:10.1126/science.69.1791.453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamburger J (1978) Discovering the individual: a fascinating journey to new frontiers of immunology and genetics, 1st edn. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Herron MD, Rashidi A, Shelton DE, Driscoll WW (2013) Cellular differentiation and individuality in the “minor” multicellular taxa. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 88:844–861. doi:10.1111/brv.12031

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes FL (1986) Claude Bernard, The “Milieu Intérieur”, and regulatory physiology. Hist Philos Life Sci 8:3–25

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooper LV, Gordon JI (2001) Commensal host–bacterial relationships in the gut. Science 292:1115–1118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hull DL (1978) A matter of individuality. Philos Sci 45:335–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hull D (1980) Individuality and selection. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 11:311–332. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.11.110180.001523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hull D (1992) Individual. In: Keller EF, Lloyd EA (eds) Keywords in evolutionary biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, pp 181–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Huneman P (2006) Naturalising purpose: from comparative anatomy to the “adventure of reason”. Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci 37:649–674. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2006.09.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huneman P (2014) Individuality as a theoretical scheme. II. About the weak individuality of organisms and ecosystems. Biol Theory 9:374–381. doi:10.1007/s13752-014-0193-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jerne NK (1974) Towards a network theory of the immune system. Ann Immunol 125C:373–389

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant I (2007) [1790] Critique of judgement. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Kauffman SA (1993) The origins of order: self organization and selection in evolution. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Keller EF (2007) The disappearance of function from “self-organizing systems”. In: Boogerd F (ed) Systems biology: philosophical foundations. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 303–317

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kim BH, Gadd GM (2008) Bacterial physiology and metabolism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kotas ME, Medzhitov R (2015) Homeostasis, inflammation, and disease susceptibility. Cell 160:816–827. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.02.010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lennox JG (2001) Aristotle’s philosophy of biology: studies in the origins of life science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (1970) The units of selection. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 1:1–18. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.01.110170.000245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (1983) The organism as the subject and object of evolution. Scientia 77:63-82

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin RC (2000) The triple helix: gene, organism, and environment. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd E (2012) Units and levels of selection. In: Zalta EN (ed) The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Winter 2012. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/selection-units/

  • Loeb L (1930) Transplantation and individuality. Physiol Rev 10:547–616

    Google Scholar 

  • Loeb L (1937) The biological basis of individuality. Science 86:1–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loeb L (1945) The biological basis of individuality. Thomas, Springfield

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Loeb L (1953) Organismal differentials and organ differentials. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 39:127–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Löwy I (1991) The immunological construction of the self. In: Tauber AI (ed) Organism and the origins of self. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 3–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Löwy I (2003) On guinea pigs, dogs and men: anaphylaxis and the study of biological individuality, 1902–1939. Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci 34:399–423

  • Lüscher M (1961) Air-conditioned termite nests. Sci Am 205:138–145. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0761-138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lwoff A (1966) Interaction among virus, cell, and organism. Science 152:1216–1220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFall-Ngai MJ (2002) Unseen forces: the influence of bacteria on animal development. Dev Biol 242:1–14. doi:10.1006/dbio.2001.0522

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McFall-Ngai M, Hadfield MG, Bosch TCG et al (2013) Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110:3229–3236. doi:10.1073/pnas.1218525110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medawar PB (1957) The uniqueness of the individual. Methuen, Londres

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Michod RE (1999) Darwinian dynamics: evolutionary transitions in fitness and individuality. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Minelli A (2011) Animal development, an open-ended segment of life. Biol Theory 6:4–15. doi:10.1007/s13752-011-0002-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moulin A-M (1991) Le dernier langage de la médecine. PUF, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble D (2006) The music of life: biology beyond the genome. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble D (2008) Claude Bernard, the first systems biologist, and the future of physiology. Exp Physiol 93:16–26. doi:10.1113/expphysiol.2007.038695

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Okasha S (2006) Evolution and the levels of selection. Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Oldroyd GED (2013) Speak, friend, and enter: signalling systems that promote beneficial symbiotic associations in plants. Nat Rev Microbiol 11:252–263. doi:10.1038/nrmicro2990

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pepper JW, Herron MD (2008) Does biology need an organism concept? Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 83:621–627. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2008.00057.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perlman RL (2000) The concept of the organism in physiology. Theory Biosci 119:174–186. doi:10.1078/1431-7613-00015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pradeu T (2008) Qu’est-ce qu’un individu biologique? In: Ludwig P, Pradeu T (eds) L’Individu: perspectives contemporaines. Vrin, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Pradeu T (2010) What is an organism? an immunological answer. Hist Philos Life Sci 32:247–268

    Google Scholar 

  • Pradeu T (2012) The limits of the self: immunology and biological identity. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pradeu T (2013) Immunity and the emergence of individuality. In: Bouchard F, Huneman P (eds) From groups to individuals: evolution and emerging individuality. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 77–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Pradeu T (2016) Editorial introduction: the many faces of biological individuality. Biol Philos. doi:10.1007/s10539-016-9553-z

  • Pradeu T, Carosella E (2006) The self model and the conception of biological identity in immunology. Biol Philos 21:235–252 doi:10.1007/s10539-005-8621-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Queller DC, Strassmann JE (2009) Beyond society: the evolution of organismality. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 364:3143–3155. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0095

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Queller DC, Strassmann JE (2016) Problems of multi-species organisms: endosymbionts to holobionts. Biol Philos. doi:10.1007/s10539-016-9547-x

  • Richet CR (1894) La défense de l’organisme: cours de physiologie de la Faculté de médecine (1893–1894). Typographie Chamerot et Renouard, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Richet C (1913) Anaphylaxis. Nobel Lect Physiol Med 1:473–492

  • Rowland NE (1998) Brain mechanisms of mammalian fluid homeostasis: insights from use of immediate early gene mapping. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 23:49–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz-Mirazo K, Etxeberria A, Moreno A, Ibáñez J (2000) Organisms and their place in biology. Theory Biosci 119:209–233. doi:10.1078/1431-7613-00018

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sansonetti PJ, Medzhitov R (2009) Learning tolerance while fighting ignorance. Cell 138:416–420. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2009.07.024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santelices Null (1999) How many kinds of individual are there? Trends Ecol Evol 14:152–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD (1995) The wisdom of the hive: the social physiology of honey bee colonies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober E (1984) The nature of selection: evolutionary theory in philosophical focus. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober E (1991) Organisms, individuals, and units of selection. In: Tauber AI (ed) Organism and the origins of self. Springer, Netherlands, pp 275–296

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sober E (2000) Philosophy of biology, 2nd edn. Westview Press, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Sober E, Wilson DS (1998) Unto others: the evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Tauber AI (1991) Organism and the origins of self. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tauber AI (1994) The immune self: theory or metaphor?. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Turner JS (2000) The extended organism: the physiology of animal-built structures. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyson JJ, Chen K, Novak B (2001) Network dynamics and cell physiology. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 2:908–916. doi:10.1038/35103078

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Underhill DM, Iliev ID (2014) The mycobiota: interactions between commensal fungi and the host immune system. Nat Rev Immunol 14:405–416. doi:10.1038/nri3684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virchow R (1978) [1858] Cellular pathology as based upon physiological and pathological histology, Special edn. Classics of Medicine Library, Birmingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Virgin HW (2014) The virome in mammalian physiology and disease. Cell 157:142–150. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2014.02.032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walz W (2005) Integrative physiology in the proteomics and post-genomics age. Humana Press, Totowa.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • West SA, Kiers ET (2009) Evolution: what is an organism? Curr Biol CB 19:R1080–R1082. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.10.048

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson J (1999) Biological individuality: the identity and persistence of living entities. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson RA (2005) Genes and the agents of life: the individual in the fragile sciences, biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson RA, Barker M (2016) The biological notion of individual. In: Zalta EN (ed) The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Summer 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2016/entries/biology-individual/

  • Wilson DS, Sober E (1989) Reviving the superorganism. J Theor Biol 136:337–356

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wing K, Sakaguchi S (2010) Regulatory T cells exert checks and balances on self tolerance and autoimmunity. Nat Immunol 11:7–13. doi:10.1038/ni.1818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolvekamp HP (1966) The concept of the organism as an integrated whole. Dialectica 20:196–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wynn TA, Chawla A, Pollard JW (2013) Macrophage biology in development, homeostasis and disease. Nature 496:445–455. doi:10.1038/nature12034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu J, Gordon JI (2003) Honor thy symbionts. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100:10452–10459. doi:10.1073/pnas.1734063100

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I thank Leonardo Bich, Ellen Clarke, John Dupré, Marc Ereshefsky, Adam Ferner, Scott Gilbert, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Philippe Huneman, Richard Lewontin, Margaret McFall-Ngai, Maureen O’Malley, Alessandro Minelli, Makmiller Pedroso, and Elliott Sober for comments on previous drafts of this paper. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme–grant agreement n° 637647 – IDEM.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ImmunoConcEpT, UMR5164, CNRS and University of Bordeaux, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux, France

    Thomas Pradeu

Authors
  1. Thomas Pradeu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Pradeu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pradeu, T. Organisms or biological individuals? Combining physiological and evolutionary individuality. Biol Philos 31, 797–817 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-016-9551-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-016-9551-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation