From Groups to Individuals: Evolution and Emerging Individuality

by Frederic Bouchard, Philippe Huneman

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262018722
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	03/22/2013
Series:	Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology , #16
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Frédéric Bouchard is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Université de Montréal. 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 d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques at the Université Paris 1 Sorbonne. 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 d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques at the Université Paris 1 Sorbonne. Bouchard and Huneman (with other colleagues) founded the Consortium for the History and Philosophy of Biology.

Frédéric Bouchard is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Université de Montréal. Bouchard and Huneman (with other colleagues) founded the Consortium for the History and Philosophy of Biology.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction Frédéric Bouchard Philippe Huneman 1

I Organisms and Individuality 15

1 Darwinian Individuals Peter Godfrey-Smith 17

2 Defining the Individual Charles J. Goodnight 37

3 Species and Organisms: What Are the Problems? Ellen Clarke Samir Okasha 55

4 Immunity and the Emergence of Individuality Thomas Pradeu 77

II Adaptation and Complex Individuals 97

5 Adaptation of Individuals and Groups Andy Gardner 99

6 The Unit of Adaptation, the Emergence of Individuality, and the Loss of Evolutionary Sovereignty Minus van Baalen 117

7 Adaptations in Transitions: How to Make Sense of Adaptation When Beneficiaries Emerge Simultaneously with Benefits? Philippe Huneman 141

III Groups and Collectives as Individuals 173

8 Groups, Individuals, and the Emergence of Sociality: The Case of Division of Labor Andrew Hamilton Jennifer Fewell 175

9 Colonies Are Individuals: Revisiting the Superorganism Revival Matt Haber 195

10 Superorganisms and Superindividuality: The Emergence of Individuality in a Social Insect Assemblage Scott Turner 219

11 What Is a Symbiotic Superindividual and How Do You Measure Its Fitness? Frédéric Bouchard 243

Contributors 265

Index 267

What People are Saying About This

Dan McShea

A thoroughly modern take on the timeless questions surrounding the evolution of groups and individuality—rich and rigorous, creatively contrarian, and occasionally iconoclastic.

Endorsement

The question of biological individuality, where one individual ends and another begins, has moved rapidly in recent years, from an occasional and rather exotic question at the boundaries of the subject to the cutting edge of the philosophy of biology. This volume brings together many of the leading contributors to this development and will provide the perfect starting point for anyone interested in understanding how this question has come to be so fundamental to our understanding of living processes.

—John Dupré, University of Exeter; author of Processes of Life: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology

From the Publisher

"A thoroughly modern take on the timeless questions surrounding the evolution of groups and individuality — rich and rigorous, creatively contrarian,and occasionally iconoclastic." — Dan McShea, Duke University

"The question of biological individuality, where one individual ends and another begins, has moved rapidly in recent years, from an occasional and rather exotic question at the boundaries of the subject to the cutting edge of the philosophy of biology. This volume brings together many of the leading contributors to this development and will provide the perfect starting point for anyone interested in understanding how this question has come to be so fundamental to our understanding of living processes." — John Dupré,University of Exeter; author of Processes of Life: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology

John Dupré

The question of biological individuality, where one individual ends and another begins, has moved rapidly in recent years, from an occasional and rather exotic question at the boundaries of the subject to the cutting edge of the philosophy of biology. This volume brings together many of the leading contributors to this development and will provide the perfect starting point for anyone interested in understanding how this question has come to be so fundamental to our understanding of living processes.