How to Re-Think 

the Concept of Organism?

    ////   

Alvaro Moreno   

IAS-Research Center for Life, Mind & Society University of the Basque Country

 

בנין גילמן, חדר 449 28/3/16 יום ב' שעה 18:00

One of the most important problems in biology is the understanding of individuality and how it is represented in the idea of organism. I will first explain how the idea of autonomy provides the conceptual core of the organism, whose basic expression is the cell. Second, I will argue that the variety of forms of multicellular systems that evolution has generated raises a real challenge for understanding the concept of individuality and therefore, that we must reformulate the idea of autonomy in order to adequately ground the concept of multicellular organism and distinguish them from other types of multicellular systems. And third, I will show that this leads us to a new concept of biological individuality, strongly embedded in a collective (and historical) dimension.