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1097What is an organism? An immunological answerHistory and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 32 (2-3): 247-267. 2010.The question “What is an organism?”, formerly considered as essential in biology, has now been increasingly replaced by a larger question, “What is a biological individual?”. On the grounds that i) individuation is theory-dependent, and ii) physiology does not offer a theory, biologists and philosophers of biology have claimed that it is the theory of evolution by natural selection which tells us what counts as a biological individual. Here I show that one physiological field, immunology, offers…Read more
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123The many faces of biological individualityBiology and Philosophy 31 (6): 761-773. 2016.Biological individuality is a major topic of discussion in biology and philosophy of biology. Recently, several objections have been raised against traditional accounts of biological individuality, including the objections of monism, theory-centrism, ahistoricity, disciplinary isolationism, and the multiplication of conceptual uncertainties. In this introduction, I will examine the current philosophical landscape about biological individuality, and show how the contributions gathered in this spe…Read more
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Theories of development in biologyâproblems and perspectivesTowards a Theory of Development 1. forthcoming.
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24This volume is the best available tool to compare and appraise the different approaches of today’s biology and their conceptual frameworks, serving as a springboard for new research on a clarified conceptual basis. It is expected to constitute a key reference work for biologists and philosophers of biology, as well as for all scientists interested in understanding what is at stake in the present transformations of biological models and theories. The volume is distinguished by including, for the …Read more
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126The self model and the conception of biological identity in immunologyBiology and Philosophy 21 (2): 235-252. 2006.The self/non-self model, first proposed by F.M. Burnet, has dominated immunology for 60 years now. According to this model, any foreign element will trigger an immune reaction in an organism, whereas endogenous elements will not, in normal circumstances, induce an immune reaction. In this paper we show that the self/non-self model is no longer an appropriate explanation of experimental data in immunology, and that this inadequacy may be rooted in an excessively strong metaphysical conception of …Read more
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66To Be Continued: The Genidentity of Physical and Biological ProcessesIn Thomas Pradeu & Alexandre Guay (eds.), Individuals Across The Sciences, Oxford University Press. pp. 317-347. 2016.The concept of genidentity has been proposed as a way to better understand identity through time, especially in physics and biology. The genidentity view is utterly anti-substantialist in so far as it suggests that the identity of X through time does not presuppose whatsoever the existence of a permanent “core” or “substrate” of X. Yet applications of this concept to real science have been scarce and unsatisfying. In this paper, our aim is to show that a well-defined concept of functional genide…Read more
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L'identité immunologique: soi ou continuité?L’Identité? Soi, Non-Soi, Individu Et Personne 47--58. forthcoming.
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88Immunity and the Emergence of IndividualityIn Frédéric Bouchard & Philippe Huneman (eds.), From Groups to Individuals: Evolution and Emerging Individuality, Mit Press. pp. 77. 2013.Since, it has become clear that individuality is not to be considered as a given, but rather as something which needs to be explained. How has individuality emerged through evolution, and how has it subsequently been maintained? In particular, why is it that multicellular organisms appeared and persisted, despite the obvious interest of each cell of favoring its own replication? Several biologists see the immune system as one of the key components for explaining the maintenance of multicellular …Read more
Thomas Pradeu
CNRS & University Of Bordeaux
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CNRS & University Of BordeauxProfessor
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |