The Identity of Organisms in Scientific Practice: Integrating Historical and Relational Conceptions

Abstract

We address the identity of biological organisms at play in experimental and modeling practices. We first examine the central tenets of two general conceptions, and we assess their respective strengths and weaknesses. The historical conception, on the one hand, characterizes organisms' identity by looking at their past, and specifically at their genealogical connection with a common ancestor. The relational conception, on the other hand, interprets organisms' identity by referring to a set of distinctive relations between their parts, and between the organism and its environment. While the historical and relational conceptions are understood as opposed and conflicting, we submit that they are also fundamentally complementary. Accordingly, we put forward a hybrid conception, in which historical and relational (and more specifically, organizational) aspects of organisms' identity sustain and justify each other. Moreover, we argue that organisms' identity is not only hybrid but also bounded, insofar as the compliance with specific identity criteria tends to vanish as time passes, especially across generations. We spell out the core conceptual framework of this conception, and we outline an original formal representation. We contend that the hybrid and bounded conception of organisms' identity suits the epistemological needs of biological practices, particularly with regards to the generalization and reproducibility of experimental results, and the integration of mathematical models with experiments.

The Construction of Biological ‘Inter-Identity’ as the Outcome of a Complex Process of Protocell Development in Prebiotic Evolution

“…On Biological 'Inter-Identity' Therefore, it is quite revealing to conceive the construction of biological identity in the context of that process of interbreeding between the physiological-cellular-metabolic 'token-identity' of individual, cyclic and reproductive organizations, and the evolutionary-population-historical 'type-identity' of collective phylogenies following open-ended (bifurcating and extinguishing) pathways. In that sense, our position is akin to Montévil and Mossio's (2020), who claim (in this same issue) that biological identity is shaped, in scientific practice, at the crossroads between «historical and relational conceptions [of the living]», carrying out a purely epistemological treatment of the problem. In contrast, we delve into the ontological and genealogical reasons behind the phenomenon, from the point of view of its progressive prebiotic emergence, and this allows us to discuss several issues in greater depth, like the importance of the 'interactive' aspects involved -as we do just below, to start concluding our contribution (also summarized schematically in Table 1).…”

Conceptual and Theoretical Specifications forAccuracy in Medicine

“…At the same time, this kind of definition does not explicitly provide a control on the organization of objects, that is, the properties relevant for experimental biology and medicine. However, it does give a partial control on these properties, due to the limited pace at which novelties appear and the stabilizing processes mentioned above, that is, natural selection and organization sensu closure of constraints (Montévil and Mossio, 2020). By definition, constraints have more or less intrinsic stability (Montévil and Mossio, 2015), and the stabilizations discussed above are more or less intense, depending on the constraints considered.…”

“…We also introduced a new symbol, 𝜒, that represents the contextual and historical component of the theoretical and practical definition of organisms, in combination with constraints (Montévil and Mossio, 2020). We contend that this kind of epistemological architecture is required for theoretical accuracy in biology.…”

Entropies and the Anthropocene crisis

“…Specificity stems both from the structure of constraints and their articulation to an organization. As a result, the theoretical definition of organisms integrates relational and historical approaches, which requires a proper theorization (Montévil and Mossio, 2020).…”