Switch to: References

Citations of:

Some questions about identifying individuals: Failed intuitions about organisms and species

Christopher D. Horvath

Philosophy of Science 64 (4):654-668 (1997)

Add citations

You must login to add citations.

Ontological butchery: Organism concepts and biological generalizations.Jack A. Wilson - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (3):311.details Biology lacks a central organism concept that unambiguously marks the distinction between organism and non-organism because the most important questions about organisms do not depend on this concept. I argue that the two main ways to discover useful biological generalizations about multicellular organization--the study of homology within multicellular lineages and of convergent evolution across lineages in which multicellularity has been independently established--do not require what would have to be a stipulative sharpening of an organism concept. Download Export citation Bookmark 16 citations
Understanding colonial traits using symbiosis research and ecosystem ecology.Frédéric Bouchard - 2009 - Biological Theory 4 (3):240-246.details E. O. Wilson (1974: 54) describes the problem that social organisms pose: “On what bases do we distinguish the extremely modified members of an invertebrate colony from the organs of a metazoan animal?” This framing of the issue has inspired many to look more closely at how groups of organisms form and behave as emergent individuals. The possible existence of “superorganisms” test our best intuitions about what can count and act as genuine biological individuals and how we should study them. (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 15 citations
Taxa, individuals, clusters and a few other things.Donald H. Colless - 2006 - Biology and Philosophy 21 (3):353-367.details The recognition of species proceeds by two fairly distinct phases: (1) the sorting of individuals into groups or basic taxa (‘discovery’) (2) the checking of those taxa as candidates for species-hood (‘justification’). The target here is a rational reconstruction of phase 1, beginning with a discussion of key terms. The transmission of ‘meaning’ is regarded as bimodal: definition states the intension of the term, and diagnosis provides a disjunction of criteria for recognition of its extension. The two are connected by (...) Download Export citation Bookmark 2 citations
Race, kinds and ontological commitments: Issues for social policy clarification.Steven I. Miller & Frank Perino - 2007 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 24 (1):1–15.details abstract This article attempts to illustrate the continuing need to pay attention to ontological issues connected with the conduct of empirical research and subsequent policy making. Failure to do so leads to the conflation of social constructions with ideas about the thesis of an independent reality. Such category mistakes often lead to dilemmas in which culturally sensitive constructs may, on the one hand, be worthy of study because they do tell us how socially constructed categories do predict social phenomena; but, (...) Download Export citation Bookmark

1