Counting Biological Individuals

Abstract

The business of Part II of this book is to bring the core metaphysical principles of the Scholastics into systematic and sustained contact with evolutionary biology. The leading idea is to test the viability of Scholastic principles by seeing if they provide the resources to cope with problems emerging from the first-order disciplines, the natural and social sciences in particular. If they do, then Scholasticism vindicates itself in the marketplace of ideas. If not, then the perennial philosophy needs further development and perhaps revision. This chapter considers the challenge of providing a theory of individuation for living entities. The thesis is that a plausible theory of individuation for biological entities can be forwarded, which relies heavily on the concepts of action and operation. These concepts are central to the Scholastic account of individuals, but are generally absent from the corresponding discussions in the current philosophical and biological literature. The key claim then is that a Scholastic understanding of what it is to be an individual can be deployed to handle a current puzzle in biology, a puzzle that otherwise defies easy resolution. Because this is ultimately the best kind of argument one can offer in support of metaphysical claims, this excursion into biological matters provides a warrant for the Scholastic account of individuals.