The Paradox of the Organism (Revisited)
"The paradox of the organism is that it is not torn apart by its conflicting replicators but stays together and works as a purposeful entity, apparently on behalf of all of them. Not only is it not torn apart; it functions as such a convincingly unified whole that biologists in general have not seen that there is a paradox at all!" We wanted to bring together scholars with different points of entry but a shared interest in organisms and the internal conflicts that divide them. We will be assembling an edited volume from the proceedings of this conference, which we hope will inspire further work focused on organismality and internal conflicts.
We acknowledge generous support from the John Templeton foundation. Our project is one of many supported under the broader Science of Purpose project, spearheaded by Alan Love at the University of Minnesota. --The organizers Arvid Ågren Manus Patten |
