From Groups to Individuals - Evolution and Emerging Individuality (Hardcover)

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 Frederic 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

General

Imprint:	MIT Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology
Release date:	April 2013
First published:	2013
Editors:	Frederic Bouchard • Philippe Huneman (Research Associate (CNRS))
Contributors:	Peter Godfrey-Smith (Professor of History and Philosophy of Science) • Charles J. Goodnight • Ellen Clarke (Post-Doctoral Research Fellow) • Samir Okasha • Thomas Pradeau • Andy Gardner (Royal Society University Research Fellow) • Minus van Baalen • Philippe Huneman (Research Associate (CNRS))
Dimensions:	229 x 178 x 19mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	288
ISBN-13:	978-0-262-01872-2
Categories:	Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Biogeography Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues > Evolution
LSN:	0-262-01872-1
Barcode:	9780262018722

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