What Is the Problem?

Abstract

Abstract This stand-alone chapter gives an accessible introduction to the problem of biological individuality. It provides vivid and engaging real-life examples that pull our intuitions in different directions, and explains how existing attempts to say what an organism is, by biologists and philosophers, have generated a complex and contested concept. The chapter posits that we typically expect functional and developmental criteria to fit neatly together so that biological individuals have parts that are similar but also work together cohesively. It then details a range of cases, including symbiosis, coloniality, and genetic chimericism, in which those expectations are disappointed and we are left feeling torn between alternative possible conceptualisations of the units in question. It then details some practical consequences of the conceptual confusion, and introduces a range of different criteria that might be applied to arbitrate the situation. Finally, some very general considerations are offered about what form an appropriate solution would take.