The Origin Of Individuals

by Jean-jacques Kupiec

Overview

In the 17th century, Descartes put forth the metaphor of the machine to explain the functioning of living beings. In the 18th century, La Mettrie extended the metaphor to man. The clock was then used as the paradigm of the machine. In the 20th century, this metaphor still held but the clock was replaced by a computer. Nowadays, the organism is viewed as a robot obeying signals emanating from a computer program controlled by genetic information. This book shows that such a conception leads to contradictions not only in the theory of biology but also in its experimental research program, thereby impeding its development. The analysis of this problem is based on the most recent experimental data obtained in molecular biology as well as the history and philosophy of biology. It shows that the machine theory did not succeed in breaking with Aristotle's finalism. The book presents a new approach to biological systems based on cellular Darwinism. Genes are ruled by probabilistic mechanisms allowing cells to differentiate stochastically. Embryo development is not governed by a determinist genetic program but by natural selection occurring among cell populations inside the organism. This theory has considerable philosophical consequences. Man may be a machine but he is a random one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789812704993
Publisher:	World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/09/2009
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgements xi

Chapter 1 Five Arguments for a New Theory of Biological Individuation 1

1.1 Ontophylogenesis 4

1.2 Random man 6

1.3 The same kind of laws govern biology and physics 8

1.4 The first principle of biology 10

1.5 Man lost in the Amazonian forest 11

Chapter 2 What is a Probabilistic Process? 15

Summary of the chapter 15

2.1 There is no qualitative difference between determinism and probabilism 16

2.2 Errors related to using probability 18

2.2.1 Probability does not deny causality 18

2.2.2 Probability is not incompatible with reproducibility 19

2.2.3 Probability, accident and contingency are not synonymous 21

2.2.4 Probability is not noise 24

Chapter 3 The Determinism of Molecular Biology 33

Summary of the chapter 33

3.1 Order from order 34

3.2 Stereospecific self-assembly 37

3.3 Genetic programming and signalling 43

Chapter 4 The Contradiction in Genetic Determinism 47

Summary of the chapter 47

4.1 The non-specificity of biological molecules 48

4.1.1 Non-specificity in metabolism 48

4.1.2 Non-specificity in the immune reaction 49

4.1.3 Non-specificity in cell signalling 50

4.1.4 Non-specificity in the control of gene expression 51

4.1.5 Overall non-specificity of protein networks 52

4.2 The causes of molecular non-specificity 54

4.2.1 The multiplicity of interaction domains 54

4.2.2 The plasticity of interaction sites 55

4.2.3 Molecular disorder 56

4.2.4 Specificity is not an experimental concept 58

4.3 The consequence of molecular non-specificity: Return to holism 59

4.3.1 The network won't work 59

4.3.2 Negating the principle of order from order 63

Chapter 5 Self-Organisation DoesNot Resolve the Contradiction in Genetic Determinism 67

Summary of the chapter 67

5.1 The scientific principles 68

5.2 Philosophical holism 72

5.3 Biological holism 81

5.3.1 The neo-vitalistic holism of Hans Driesch 81

5.3.2 The neo-vitalistic holism of Walter Elsasser 83

5.3.3 Self-organisation according to Prigogine 85

5.3.4 Self-organisation according to Stuart Kauffman 89

5.3.5 Self-organisation according to Atlan 91

5.3.6 Self-organisation according to Weiss 94

5.3.7 Self-organisation according to Kirschner, Gerhardt and Mitchison 98

5.4 Self-organisation does not exist 100

Chapter 6 Hetero-organisation 103

Summary of the chapter 103

6.1 Ontogenesis and phylogenesis are but one process 107

6.1.1 The model of the heap of cells and the origin of multicellularity 111

6.1.2 The organism interiorises its environment 118

6.1.3 The organism functions for the cells, not the reverse 123

6.2 The deterministic theory of cell differentiation 127

6.2.1 Embryonic induction 128

6.2.2 The instructive model 128

6.2.3 The instructive model trips up against the contradiction in genetic determinism 130

6.2.4 The instructive model does not account for variability in cell differentiation 131

6.2.5 The instructive model does not account for stochastic gene expression 132

6.3 The Darwinian theory of cell differentiation 134

6.3.1 From differentiation to cell identification 134

6.3.2 From metabolic selection to stabilisation by the 'signal-food' 137

6.3.3 Role of signals in the Darwinian model 139

6.3.4 Mode of action of a signal (selector, signal-food) 140

6.3.5 Experimental data relating to cell selection and stabilisation 142

6.3.6 Testable predictions of the Darwinian model 144

6.4 Simulation of the Darwinian model 146

6.4.1 Interstabilisation and autostabilisation produce different effects 147

6.4.2 Cell selection creates organised structures 150

6.4.3 Spontaneous growth arrest is the result of equilibrium between cell selection and phenotype autostabilisation 154

6.4.4 A new conception of cancer 155

6.4.5 The role of morphogenetic gradients in the Darwinian model 159

6.4.6 Does the Darwinian model lead to the emergence of new properties? 159

6.4.7 Is the body a cell ecosystem? 161

6.5 Models of gene expression 162

6.5.1 Networks with noise 163

6.5.2 Self-organisation model of chromatin 164

6.5.3 The stochastic expression of genes subject to natural selection 167

Chapter 7 Biology's Blind Spot 175

Summary of the chapter 175

7.1 Generation according to Hippocrates 177

7.2 Generation according to Aristotle 181

7.3 The pangenetic theory 186

7.4 The return of Form 192

7.5 The contradiction in genetic determinism is a consequence of genetic essentialism 195

7.6 Beyond the species 201

Conclusion: A Research Programme and Ethical Principle based on Ontophylogenesis 205

Glossary 211

List of Abbreviations 221

List of Figures 223

Bibliography 225

Author Index 243

Subject Index 245