Organization in Biology: Foundational Enquiries into a Scientific Blindspot (History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, 33)

History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences is a space for dialogue between life scientists, philosophers and historians -welcoming both essays about the principles and domains of cutting-edge research in the life sciences, novel ways of tackling philosophical issues raised by the life sciences, as well as original research about the history of methods, ideas and tools, which constitute the genealogy of our current ways of understanding living phenomena. The series is interested in receiving book proposals that • are aimed at academic audience of graduate level and up • combine historical and/or philosophical and/or theoretical studies with work from disciplines within the life sciences broadly conceived, including (but not limited to) the following areas: • Anatomy & Organization in Biology Copyright Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: Organization as a Scientific Blind Spot 1.1 The Neglect of Organization 1.2 Organization as an Explanandum and an Explanans of Biology 1.3 The Anti-reductionist Trend in Evolutionary Biology 1.4 The Anti-reductionist Trend in Systems Biology 1.5 The Anti-reductionist Trend in the Origins of Life 1.6 What Is Organization? 1.7 Historical Overview 1.8 The Current Context, and The Place of the Book References Chapter 2: “Organization”: Its Conceptual History and Its Relationship to Other Fundamental Biological Concepts 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Conceptual History of “Organization” 2.3 The Meaning of “Organization” 2.4 “Organization” as One of the Three Basic Principles of Biology 2.5 Organization, Constraints, and Morphology References Chapter 3: Varieties of Organicism: A Critical Analysis 3.1 Organicism as Ontology, as Epistemology or as a Blurry Mix 3.2 A Current Organicist Consensus? 3.3 Organicism Strong and Weak, and the Ghost of Vitalism 3.4 Ontology and Ontologization 3.5 Conclusion References Chapter 4: Judging Organization: A Plea for Transcendental Logic in Philosophy of Biology 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Canguilhem’s Theory of Judgment vis-à-vis Life 4.2.1 Canguilhem’s Attitudinal Vitalism 4.2.2 Canguilhem’s Theory of the “Broken Judgment” 4.2.3 Knowledge About Knowledge: Reflexivity and Reciprocity 4.2.4 Life and Logic 4.3 Kant’s Theory of Judgment vis-à-vis Life 4.3.1 Logic as a Return Upon Unconsciously Operative Rules 4.3.2 Transcendental Logic: The Emulsifying Function of Judgment 4.3.3 The Life of the Reflecting Power of Judgment 4.3.4 The Organization of Judgment and/as Living Organization 4.4 Back to Attitudinal Vitalism 4.5 Conclusion References Chapter 5: On the Organizational Roots of Bio-cognition 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Characterizing Organization 5.3 N-organization and Bio-cognition 5.3.1 Autonomy, Agency (and Robotics), Auto(self)-directedness, and Anticipation 5.4 In Conclusion References Chapter 6: Does Organicism Really Need Organization? 6.1 Introduction 6.2 When Is Organicism? 6.2.1 Organization as a Mean to an End 6.2.2 Defining Organicism 6.3 Organicism and Emergence 6.3.1 Emergence and Organization* 6.3.2 Emergence and Transformation 6.4 Transformational Organicism and the Autonomy of Biology 6.4.1 Transformational Organicism Is Conceptually Sound 6.4.2 Is Transformational Organicism More than Just Conceptually Sound? 6.4.3 A Possible Objection and the Way Forward 6.5 Conclusion: The Good Fortune of Organicism References Chapter 7: Organisms: Between a Kantian Approach and a Liberal Approach 7.1 Making Sense of Organisms: The Kantian View 7.1.1 Purposiveness 7.1.2 Regulative Principle? 7.1.3 Natural Purposes and Self-Organization 7.2 Making Sense of Organisms? From Kant to the Modern Synthesis 7.2.1 Design Criterion 7.2.2 Epigeneticism Criterion 7.3 Evolutionary Individuals: A Liberal Approach Based on Conceptual Spaces 7.3.1 Transitions in Individuality 7.3.2 Conceptual Spaces: Being Liberal 7.3.3 Ecosystems, Individuals, and Organisms 7.4 Confronting the Approaches 7.4.1 Threshold Strategy 7.4.2 Pragmatic Strategy 7.5 Conclusion References Chapter 8: The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Organizational Closure and Continuity 8.3 Minimal Conditions for Darwinian Evolution by Natural Selection 8.4 Three Different Perspectives on the Evolutionary Causal Thicket 8.5 Reproducers, Evolvability, and the Completion of the Life Cycle 8.6 Organization, Reproduction, Agency, and Minimal Evolution 8.7 The Fourth Perspective: An Agential Theory of Evolution 8.8 Conclusion References Chapter 9: On the Evolutionary Development of Biological Organization from Complex Prebiotic Chemistry 9.1 Introduction: Organization as an Explanatory Construct in Origins-of-Life Research 9.2 Organizational Accounts at the Onset of Prebiotic Evolution: Network Versus Protocell Models 9.2.1 Network Models 9.2.2 Protocell Models 9.3 The Interweaving of Organizational and Evolutionary Processes in Biogenesis: A Complementary but Causally Asymmetric Relationship 9.3.1 Trans-generational Constraints and the Expansion of Functional Space 9.4 “Dynamical Decoupling”: A Key Principle to Understand the Evolutionary Development of Complex Material Organizations 9.5 Concluding Remarks References Chapter 10: Organization and Inheritance in Twenty-First-Century Evolutionary Biology 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Toward a More Organization-Centered Framework for Twenty-First-Century Evolutionary Biology 10.2.1 An Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to Fill in the Explanatory Gaps of the Gene-Centered Framework 10.2.2 Focus on Organisms and Introduction of an Organizational Thinking 10.2.3 From a Heuristic of Replication to a Heuristic of Collaboration 10.2.4 A Missing Organizational Perspective of Biological Inheritance? 10.3 An Organizational Perspective of Biological Inheritance 10.3.1 Principles of an Organizational Perspective of Biological Inheritance 10.3.2 Inheritance and Organization: Toward the Conception of Multifarious Heritable Variations 10.3.3 Inheritance and Organization: An Approach Suited to the Heuristic of Collaboration 10.4 Explanatory Value and Theoretical Implications of an Organizational Perspective on Biological Inheritance for Evolutionary Thinking 10.4.1 Stabilization of Non-genetic Acquisitions and Evolution of Non-standard Biological Systems 10.4.2 Perspectives on Fitness, Natural Selection, and Evolution 10.5 Conclusion References Chapter 11: There Are No Intermediate Stages: An Organizational View on Development 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Puzzles and Challenges Within Theories of Development 11.2.1 Challenge 1: What Is Developmental Change, and Is It Restricted to Multicellular Organisms? 11.2.2 Challenge 2: Does Development Necessarily Start at Fertilization? 11.2.3 Challenge 3: Does Development Always Start at a Unicellular Bottleneck? 11.2.4 Challenge 4: Does Development Imply an Increase in Complexity? 11.2.5 Challenge 5: Does Development End at Reproductive Maturity? 11.2.6 Challenge 6: Are the Transitions Between Multicellular and Unicellular Forms in a Complex Life Cycle Development or Reproduction? 11.2.7 Challenge 7: Can Multispecies Assemblages Develop as One System? 11.3 Gestalt Switch: Adopting the Organizational Perspective 11.4 Toward an Organizational Account of Development 11.5 Conclusions References Chapter 12: Modeling Organogenesis from Biological First Principles 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Background Concepts 12.3 From Organicist Ideas to Principles for a Theory of Organisms 12.4 The Mammary Gland as an Organ Model for the Study of Morphogenesis 12.4.1 A 3D Culture Model for the Study of Mammary Gland Morphogenesis 12.5 From the 3D Culture Model to a Mathematical Model 12.5.1 Proliferation 12.5.2 Motility and Constraints to Motility 12.5.3 Determination of the System 12.6 Mathematical Model 12.6.1 Description of the Model 12.6.2 Outcomes of the Mathematical Model 12.6.2.1 In a Globular Matrix 12.6.2.2 In a Fibrillar Matrix 12.7 The In Vitro System and the Organism 12.8 Conclusions References Chapter 13: From the Organizational Theory of Ecological Functions to a New Notion of Sustainability 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Philosophical Theories of Function and Their Approach to Teleology and Normativity 13.3 The Organizational Theory of Ecological Functions 13.4 Organizational Functions and the Individuation of Ecological Systems 13.4.1 Ascribing Organizational Functions in Non-equilibrium Ecology 13.4.2 On the Domain of the Organizational Theory of Ecological Functions 13.4.3 Modularity Analysis and the Identification of Ecological Systems Showing Tendency to Closure 13.5 Organizational Functions and Evolution 13.6 Ascribing Functions to Abiotic Items 13.7 A Word on Pluralism About Ecological Functions 13.8 From Organizational Functions to an Integrated Scientific and Ethical Approach to Sustainability 13.9 Concluding Remarks References Index This open access book assesses the prospects of (re)adopting organization as a pivotal concept in biology. It shows how organization can nourish biological thinking and practice, by reconnecting with the idea of biology as the science of organized systems. The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of the characterizations and uses of the concept of organization in both biological science and philosophy of biology. It also deals with a variety of themes – including evolution, organogenesis, heredity, cognition and ecology – with respect to which the concept of organization can guide the elaboration of original models and new experimental protocols. It will be of interest to biologists and scholars working in philosophy of science alike.