Holobionts: Ecological communities, hybrids, or biological individuals? A metaphysical perspective on multispecies systems (2020)
Triviño, Vanessa (Author)
Suárez, Javier (Author)
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 84
Pages: 101323
Holobionts are symbiotic assemblages composed by a macrobe host (animal or plant) plus its symbiotic microbiota. In recent years, the ontological status of holobionts has created a great amount of controversy among philosophers and biologists: are holobionts biological individuals or are they rather ecological communities of independent individuals that interact together? Chiu and Eberl have recently developed an eco-immunity account of the holobiont wherein holobionts are neither biological individuals nor ecological communities, but hybrids between a host and its microbiota. According to their account, the microbiota is not a proper part of the holobiont. Yet, it should be regarded as a set of scaffolds that support the individuality of the host. In this paper, we approach Chiu and Eberl's account from a metaphysical perspective and argue that, contrary to what the authors claim, the eco-immunity account entails that the microorganisms that compose the host's microbiota are proper parts of the holobiont. Second, we argue that by claiming that holobionts are hybrids, and therefore, not biological individuals, the authors seem to be assuming a controversial position about the ontology of hybrids, which are conventionally characterized as a type of biological individual. In doing so, our paper aligns with the contemporary tendency to incorporate metaphysical resources to shed light on current biological debates and builds on that to provide additional support to the consideration of holobionts as biological individuals from an eco-immunity perspective.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Pierrick Bourrat;
Paul E. Griffiths;
(2018)
Multispecies Individuals
(/isis/citation/CBB336701257/)
Book
Snait B. Gissis;
Ehud Lamm;
Ayelet Shavit;
(2018)
Landscapes of Collectivity in the Life Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB644950362/)
Article
John Dupré;
Stephan Guttinger;
(2016)
Viruses as living processes
(/isis/citation/CBB322148308/)
Article
Michelini, Francesca;
(2012)
Hegel's Notion of Natural Purpose
(/isis/citation/CBB001221596/)
Article
Gregor P. Greslehner;
(2020)
Not by structures alone: Can the immune system recognize microbial functions?
(/isis/citation/CBB290841407/)
Chapter
Pierdaniele Giaretta;
Roberto Toni;
Stefano Borgo;
(2015)
Linguaggio mereologico e descrizione anatomica
(/isis/citation/CBB662890918/)
Chapter
Elena Casetta;
(2015)
Il problema dell’individuo biologico: un approccio biometafisico
(/isis/citation/CBB028579447/)
Book
Scott Lidgard;
Lynn K. Nyhart;
(2017)
Biological Individuality: Integrating Scientific, Philosophical, and Historical Perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB108117531/)
Book
Daniel J. Nicholson;
John Dupré;
(2018)
Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB861260484/)
Chapter
W. Ford Doolittle;
(2012)
Craig Venter’s New Life: the Realization of Some Thought Experiments in Biological Ontology
(/isis/citation/CBB307106698/)
Article
Davina Höll;
Leonie N. Bossert;
(2022)
Introducing the microbiome: Interdisciplinary perspectives
(/isis/citation/CBB861263144/)
Article
French, Steven;
(2011)
Shifting to Structures in Physics and Biology: A Prophylactic for Promiscuous Realism
(/isis/citation/CBB001024001/)
Article
Hub Zwart;
(2022)
“Love is a microbe too”: Microbiome dialectics
(/isis/citation/CBB625800686/)
Article
Adam Dickinson;
(2022)
Neck of the woods: Microbes, memory, and resistance
(/isis/citation/CBB181574837/)
Article
Alex Nading;
(2016)
Evidentiary Symbiosis: On Paraethnography in Human–Microbe Relations
(/isis/citation/CBB414849345/)
Article
Laÿna Droz;
Romaric Jannel;
Christoph D. D. Rupprecht;
(2022)
Living through multispecies societies: Approaching the microbiome with Imanishi Kinji
(/isis/citation/CBB332351562/)
Article
Anna Wienhues;
(2022)
Looking through the microscope: Microbes as a challenge for theorising biocentrism within environmental ethics
(/isis/citation/CBB384460195/)
Article
Miguel Escribano-Cabeza;
(2020)
Fish and Fishpond. an Ecological Reading of G.W. Leibniz’s Monadology §§ 63–70
(/isis/citation/CBB397286416/)
Article
Pierre-Olivier Méthot;
(2016)
La médecine (évolutive) entre individu et population : l’apport de la microbiologie au problème de l’individualité biologique
(/isis/citation/CBB976405663/)
Article
Eugene V. Koonin;
Petro Starokadomskyy;
(2016)
Are viruses alive? The replicator paradigm sheds decisive light on an old but misguided question
(/isis/citation/CBB397015597/)
Be the first to comment!