Philosophy of Immunology

Philosophy of Immunology
Author: Thomas Pradeu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-02-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1108575021

Immunology is central to contemporary biology and medicine, but it also provides novel philosophical insights. Its most significant contribution to philosophy concerns the understanding of biological individuality: what a biological individual is, what makes it unique, how its boundaries are established and what ensures its identity through time. Immunology also offers answers to some of the most interesting philosophical questions. What is the definition of life? How are bodily systems delineated? How do the mind and the body interact? In this Element, Thomas Pradeu considers the ways in which immunology can shed light on these and other important philosophical issues. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The Immune Self

The Immune Self
Author: Alfred I. Tauber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 1994
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780521574433

The Immune Self is the first extended philosophical critique of immunology.

The Limits of the Self

The Limits of the Self
Author: Thomas Pradeu
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2012-02-27
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0199775281

Immunology asserts that an individual can be defined through self and nonself. Thomas Pradeu argues that this theory is inadequate, because immune responses to self constituents and immune tolerance of foreign entities are the rule, not the exception.

Immunity

Immunity
Author: Alfred I. Tauber
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2017
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0190651245

Machine generated contents note: -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: A History of the Immune Self -- Chapter 2: Whither Immune Identity? -- Chapter 3: Individuality Revised -- Chapter 4: Immune Cognition -- Chapter 5: Eco-immunology -- Chapter 6: A New Biology? -- Epilogue -- Endnotes -- References. 650

Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy

Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy
Author: Inge Mutsaers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2016-03-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317118510

Given the propensity of contemporary protection measures such as counterterrorism efforts and fierce protection strategies against viral threats, as well as physical and legal barriers against migration, a number of political philosophers, including Peter Sloterdijk and Roberto Esposito, have claimed that contemporary (political) culture can be characterised by a so-called ’immunisation paradigm’. This book critically examines the intricate entanglement between biological immunological notions and their political philosophical appropriation, whilst studying the ’immunisation response’ to recent viral threats, including the Swine Flu pandemic of 2009 and the lab-bred Avian flu threat of 2012, to analyse immunisation as a biopolitical strategy. Offering insights into to the polarising tendencies in contemporary political culture resulting from the appropriation of immunological concepts in political thought, the author also shows how political philosophers tend to build on purely defensive understandings of immunity. As such, Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy constitutes a theoretically sophisticated critique of the ’semantic trap’ caused by the use of immunological concepts in political philosophy. Arguing for a more versatile and less defensive immunological repertoire, which allows for the development of alternative and less polarised forms of political debate, this book will appeal to scholars of political theory, sociology, philosophy and science and technology studies.

The Generation of Diversity

The Generation of Diversity
Author: Alfred I. Tauber
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2000
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780674001824

This book is an intellectual history of the major theoretical problem in immunology and its resolution in the post-World War II period. In recent years immunology has been one of the most exciting--and successful--fields of biomedical research; this book provides essential background for understanding the conceptual conflicts occurring in the field.

Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology

Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology
Author: Alfred I. Tauber
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1991-07-25
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 019534510X

This fascinating intellectual history is the first critical study of the work of Elie Metchnikoff, the founding father of modern immunology. Metchnikoff authored and championed the theory that phagocytic cells actively defend the host body against pathogens and diseased cells. His program developed from comparative embryological studies that sought to establish genealogical relations between species at the dawn of the Darwinian revolution. In this scientific biography, Tauber and Chernyak explore ore Metchnikoff's development as an embryologist, showing how it prepared him to propose his theory of host-pathogen interaction. They discuss the profound impact of Darwin's theory of evolution on Metchnikoff's progress, and the influence of 19th century debates on vitalism, teleology, and mechanism. As a case study of scientific discovery, this work offers lucid insight into the process of creative science and its dependence on cultural and philosophic sources. Immunologists and historians of science and medicine will find it an absorbing and accessible account of a remarkable individual.

Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy

Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy
Author: Inge Mutsaers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2016-03-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317118502

Given the propensity of contemporary protection measures such as counterterrorism efforts and fierce protection strategies against viral threats, as well as physical and legal barriers against migration, a number of political philosophers, including Peter Sloterdijk and Roberto Esposito, have claimed that contemporary (political) culture can be characterised by a so-called ’immunisation paradigm’. This book critically examines the intricate entanglement between biological immunological notions and their political philosophical appropriation, whilst studying the ’immunisation response’ to recent viral threats, including the Swine Flu pandemic of 2009 and the lab-bred Avian flu threat of 2012, to analyse immunisation as a biopolitical strategy. Offering insights into to the polarising tendencies in contemporary political culture resulting from the appropriation of immunological concepts in political thought, the author also shows how political philosophers tend to build on purely defensive understandings of immunity. As such, Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy constitutes a theoretically sophisticated critique of the ’semantic trap’ caused by the use of immunological concepts in political philosophy. Arguing for a more versatile and less defensive immunological repertoire, which allows for the development of alternative and less polarised forms of political debate, this book will appeal to scholars of political theory, sociology, philosophy and science and technology studies.

The Philosophy of Science: A-M

The Philosophy of Science: A-M
Author: Sahotra Sarkar
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 536
Release: 2006
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780415977098

The first in-depth reference to the field that combines scientific knowledge with philosophical inquiry, this encyclopedia brings together a team of leading scholars to provide nearly 150 entries on the essential concepts in the philosophy of science. The areas covered include biology, chemistry, epistemology and metaphysics, physics, psychology and mind, the social sciences, and key figures in the combined studies of science and philosophy. (Midwest).

The Triumph of Uncertainty

The Triumph of Uncertainty
Author: Alfred I. Tauber
Publisher: Central European University Press
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2022-08-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9633865824

Tauber, a leading figure in history and philosophy of science, offers a unique autobiographical overview of how science as a discipline of thought has been characterized by philosophers and historians over the past century. He frames his account through science’s – and his own personal – quest for explanatory certainty. During the 20th century, that goal was displaced by the probabilistic epistemologies required to characterize complex systems, whether in physics, biology, economics, or the social sciences. This “triumph of uncertainty” is the inevitable outcome of irreducible chance and indeterminate causality. And beyond these epistemological limits, the interpretative faculties of the individual scientist (what Michael Polanyi called the “personal” and the “tacit”) invariably affects how data are understood. Whereas positivism had claimed radical objectivity, post-positivists have identified how a web of non-epistemic values and social forces profoundly influence the production of knowledge. Tauber presents a case study of these claims by showing how immunology has incorporated extra-curricular social elements in its theoretical development and how these in turn have influenced interpretive problems swirling around biological identity, individuality, and cognition. The correspondence between contemporary immunology and cultural notions of selfhood are strong and striking. Just as uncertainty haunts science, so too does it hover over current constructions of personal identity, self knowledge, and moral agency. Across the chasm of uncertainty, science and selfhood speak.