The biological world is rife with millions of unique individuals. Or is it? From a metaphysical point of view, there is a deep tension between the one and the many when it comes to organisms and the environments that they inhabit. In this talk, I will be making this metaphysical tension explicit from the perspective of both contemporary developmental and evolutionary biology. I will then present a tentative philosophical way forward to ease this tension by utilising a powers ontology rooted in the principles of Aristote which I think strikes a satisfying balance between the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of causation/agency at issue in the organism question. In the final part of the talk, I’ll recontextualise the account within developmental and evolutionary-developmental biology to show how its metaphysical balancing act might benefit the modern ‘organism’ concept.
philosophy visiting speaker sessions
University of Reading