
From Groups to Individuals
Evolution and Emerging Individuality
MIT Press
Published on 22. March 2013
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-262-01872-2 (ISBN)
Description
The biological and philosophical implications of the emergence of new collective individuals from associations of living beings.Our intuitive assumption that only organisms are the real individuals in the natural world is at odds with developments in cell biology, ecology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and other fields. Although organisms have served for centuries as nature's paradigmatic individuals, science suggests that organisms are only one of the many ways in which the natural world could be organized. When living beings work together-as in ant colonies, beehives, and bacteria-metazoan symbiosis-new collective individuals can emerge. In this book, leading scholars consider the biological and philosophical implications of the emergence of these new collective individuals from associations of living beings. The topics they consider range from metaphysical issues to biological research on natural selection, sociobiology, and symbiosis.The contributors investigate individuality and its relationship to evolution and the specific concept of organism; the tension between group evolution and individual adaptation; and the structure of collective individuals and the extent to which they can be defined by the same concept of individuality. These new perspectives on evolved individuality should trigger important revisions to both philosophical and biological conceptions of the individual.Contributors
Frédéric Bouchard, Ellen Clarke, Jennifer Fewell, Andrew Gardner, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Charles J. Goodnight, Matt Haber, Andrew Hamilton, Philippe Huneman, Samir Okasha, Thomas Pradeu, Scott Turner, Minus van Baalen
Frédéric Bouchard, Ellen Clarke, Jennifer Fewell, Andrew Gardner, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Charles J. Goodnight, Matt Haber, Andrew Hamilton, Philippe Huneman, Samir Okasha, Thomas Pradeu, Scott Turner, Minus van Baalen
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: From College Freshman to College Graduate Student
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
23 s/w Abbildungen
23 b&w illus.; 46 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-01872-2 (9780262018722)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Frédéric Bouchard is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the UniversitÈ de MontrÈal. Bouchard and Huneman (with other colleagues) founded the Consortium for the History and Philosophy of Biology.
Philippe Huneman is Research Associate (CNRS) in the Institut díHistoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques at the UniversitÈ Paris 1 Sorbonne. Bouchard and Huneman (with other colleagues) founded the Consortium for the History and Philosophy of Biology.
Contributors:
Frédéric Bouchard, Ellen Clarke, Jennifer Fewell, Andrew Gardner, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Charles J. Goodnight, Matt Haber, Andrew Hamilton, Philippe Huneman, Samir Okasha, Thomas Pradeu, Scott Turner, Minus van Baalen
Philippe Huneman is Research Associate (CNRS) in the Institut díHistoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques at the UniversitÈ Paris 1 Sorbonne. Bouchard and Huneman (with other colleagues) founded the Consortium for the History and Philosophy of Biology.
Contributors:
Frédéric Bouchard, Ellen Clarke, Jennifer Fewell, Andrew Gardner, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Charles J. Goodnight, Matt Haber, Andrew Hamilton, Philippe Huneman, Samir Okasha, Thomas Pradeu, Scott Turner, Minus van Baalen
Editor
Universite de Montreal
Research Associate (CNRS)Universite Paris I Sorbonne
Contributions
Professor of History and Philosophy of ScienceUniversity of Sydney
University of Vermont
Post-Doctoral Research FellowUniversity of Oxford
University of Bristol
IHPST - UMR8590
Royal Society University Research FellowUniversity of Oxford
CNRS/Universite Pierre et Marie Curie
Research Associate (CNRS)Universite Paris I Sorbonne