Biological Individuality The Identity and Persistence of Living Entities

What makes a biological entity an individual? Jack Wilson shows that past philosophers have failed to explicate the conditions an entity must satisfy to be a living individual. He explores the reason for this failure and explains why we should limit ourselves to examples involving real organisms rather than thought experiments. This book explores and resolves paradoxes that arise when one applies past notions of individuality to biological examples beyond the conventional range, and presents a new analysis of identity and persistence. By bringing together the fields of theoretical biology and metaphysics, Wilson explains a new theory about biological individuality which solves problems which cannot be addressed by either field alone.