Overview

Leading evolutionary theorists and philosophers come together to understand how organisms persist, even as they're riddled with internal conflict, from cancer cells to selfish genes. How does a vast menagerie of organs, tissues, cells, and genes coalesce to form a unified organism? For centuries, biologists and philosophers have taken this astonishing feat for granted, treating it as a matter of divine will or evolutionary inevitability. Yet unity is hardly assured. From cancer cells to selfish genes, the body is riven by internal conflicts. The Paradox of the Organism grapples with this puzzle. As the essays in this collection show, profound questions arise when we pierce the organismal veil and consider the self-replicating elements within. Is an organism really a cohesive agent that adapts to the ecosystem it inhabits? Or is an organism itself an ecosystem, within which individual components are engaged in a continuous arms race? The answers have immediate implications: for understanding miscarriage, treating cancer, improving psychological health, and preserving biodiversity. Challenging fundamental precepts of evolutionary theory, The Paradox of the Organism offers an incisive account of life's extraordinary success.

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9780674296381

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Reviews

The question 'What is an individual?'--a gene, a cell, an organism, a species--is the most exciting in biology today. I believe that only a combination of the practice and philosophy of biology, as in this book, can answer it.--W. Ford Doolittle, author of Darwinizing Gaia We like to think of ourselves as unitary beings, but in truth we are made of thirty trillion of our own cells and countless other entities, including bacteria, viruses, and even selfish genetic elements residing in our genomes--each potentially pursuing its own agenda. In this sweeping volume, Arvid Ågren and Manus Patten bring together leading scholars to explore the paradox of internal conflict, and what it means for our identities as multicellular organisms and as humans. This book is the definitive source for current scholarly thinking on the question of how organisms can exist despite the conflicts inherent within us and all forms of life.--Athena Aktipis, author of The Cheating Cell

We like to think of ourselves as unitary beings, but in truth we are made of thirty trillion of our own cells and countless other entities, including bacteria, viruses, and even selfish genetic elements residing in our genomes--each potentially pursuing its own agenda. In this sweeping volume, Arvid Ågren and Manus Patten bring together leading scholars to explore the paradox of internal conflict, and what it means for our identities as multicellular organisms and as humans. This book is the definitive source for current scholarly thinking on the question of how organisms can exist despite the conflicts inherent within us and all forms of life.--Athena Aktipis, author of The Cheating Cell The question 'What is an individual?'--a gene, a cell, an organism, a species--is the most exciting in biology today. And I believe that only a combination of the practice and philosophy of biology, as in this book, can answer it.--W. Ford Doolittle, author of Darwinizing Gaia

The question 'What is an individual?'--a gene, a cell, an organism, a species--is the most exciting in biology today. And I believe that only a combination of the practice and philosophy of biology, as in this book, can answer it.--W. Ford Doolittle, author of Darwinizing Gaia

Author Information

J. Arvid Ågren is Research Associate at the Lerner Research Institute of the Cleveland Clinic and Affiliated Researcher at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. He is the author of The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution. Manus M. Patten is an evolutionary biologist whose research explores the consequences of conflict, both for organisms and for evolutionary theory. He is Teaching Professor in Biology at Georgetown University.

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