Mossio M. Organization in Biology 2024

Textbook in PDF format

This book assesses the prospects of (re)adopting organization as a pivotal concept in biology. It shows how organization can nourish biological thinking and practice, by reconnecting with the idea of biology as the science of organized systems. The book provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of the characterizations and uses of the concept of organization in both biological science and philosophy of biology. It also deals with a variety of themes – including evolution, organogenesis, heredity, cognition and ecology – with respect to which the concept of organization can guide the elaboration of original models and new experimental protocols. It will be of interest to biologists and scholars working in philosophy of science alike.
Introduction: Organization as a Scientific Blind Spot
“Organization”: Its Conceptual History and Its Relationship to Other Fundamental Biological Concepts
Varieties of Organicism: A Critical Analysis
Judging Organization: A Plea for Transcendental Logic in Philosophy of Biology
On the Organizational Roots of Bio-cognition
Does Organicism Really Need Organization?
Organisms: Between a Kantian Approach and a Liberal Approach
The Fourth Perspective: Evolution and Organismal Agency
On the Evolutionary Development of Biological Organization from Complex Prebiotic Chemistry
Organization and Inheritance in Twenty-First-Century Evolutionary Biology
There Are No Intermediate Stages: An Organizational View on Development
Modeling Organogenesis from Biological First Principles
From the Organizational