'Organismo' versus 'individuo biológico': la demarcación faltante

The demarcation of organisms from other biological individuals has received relatively little attention. In this paper, I extricate and systematize the different ways in which the organism–biological individual relationship has been construed: (1) coalescence of the two concepts, (2) biological indi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Prieto, Guido Ignacio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Salamanca (USAL)
Repositorio:GREDOS. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Salamanca
OAI Identifier:oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/162730
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10366/162730
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:biological individuality
organismality
organism
paradigmatic individual
part-whole relationship
agency
major transitions in evolution
autonomy
individualidad biológica
organismalidad
organismo
individuo paradigmático
relación parte-todo
agencia
grandes transiciones evolutivas
Descripción
Sumario:The demarcation of organisms from other biological individuals has received relatively little attention. In this paper, I extricate and systematize the different ways in which the organism–biological individual relationship has been construed: (1) coalescence of the two concepts, (2) biological individual eliminativism, (3) organism eliminativism, (4) organism as a 'paradigmatic' biological individual, (5) organism as a limit state towards which biological individuals tend in evolution and development, (6) organism as instantiating the whole in a part-whole hierarchy of biological individuals, (7) organism as equivalent to physiological individual, and (8) organism as a special kind of physiological individual. I show that, in most of these stances, the organism concept is too imprecise to be demarcated from other biological individuals, which fosters some form of eliminativism. I also argue that the comparisons between organisms and biological individuals are performed in two different modes: 'horizontally' (i.e., between individuals not related hierarchically) or 'vertically' (i.e., between individuals belonging to different levels within the same hierarchy). Finally, I explain the challenges that each of these comparison modes face and suggest that the 'vertical' mode adumbrates a potential way forward.