Bereiter-Hahn, Jürgen (Author)
Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology
Volume: 14
Pages: 113-128
Individual similar to the term entirety (Ganzheit) seems to be constitutive in treating questions of organisms and their self-identity regardless of being open systems changing matter or shape. What constitutes self-identity within a continuously changing object, how can it be distinguished from other similar living entities, thus what constitutes an individual? The following parameters are supposed to constitute an individuum in the organismic world: indivisibility, continuity and constancy of the genetic material, defined boundaries with the environment and spatio-temporal coherence. Indivisibility as the central linguistic component of the term individual is of limited value only for the constitution of an object’s individuality. Organisms in general are compound structures endowed with the ability of regulation, therefore separation of some components may be tolerated without destroying their living status and the excised components themselves may give rise to a new organism. However, in combination with other parameters indivisibility may well be a decisive partner in the cases e.g. of mono-nuclear unicellular organism and of most of the metazoans if we consider regeneration as a means to re-establish integrity of an individual.
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