Do Organisms Exist?

Abstract

What is the status of organisms in modern evolutionary biology? I argue that this is a question which centers on the question of reduction , and towards a complete answer, I pursue issues through three different senses of the term: ontological, methodological, and epistemological. The first sense refers to the ultimate status of the entities of the organic world, and in this sense I argue that organisms have no special status. The second sense refers to the question of organization, and I argue that in the light of modern evolutionary biology organisms do have a distinctive “design-like” organization. The third sense refers to the relationship between theories, in particular to whether the theories of the biological sciences can be shown to be logical consequences of the theories of the physical sciences. I argue that such reduction may be possible in principle but difficult in practice. However, from the perspective of the working scientist, this hardly matters. In conclusion, I argue that in some respects organisms are not distinctive and in other respects they are. Certainly biologists need not worry for the autonomy of their subject.