现代生物学中的“个体”观念

The“individual”concept in modern biology

现代生物学的复杂个体案例表明了常识个体观念的局限性。生物学哲学将反思集中在“生物学个体性”上,给出了种种生物学个体性标准,但看似差异的观点在形而上学上是同质的,它们在不同主题和层面共享了一套“束理论”。“生物学个体”由于本身就包着“个体”,这使得它成了一种非常特殊的自然类,也使讨论变得更为复杂。因此,最好将“什么是生物学个体性”这个问题表述为两个层面的问题:什么是个体?什么是生命?前者是形而上学问题,后者是科学问题。从根本上理解“个体”,需要深入形而上学,把握哲学脉络,在现代科学的新背景下处理个体与共相的关系这一经典问题。

The complex individual cases of modern biology illustrate the limitations of the common sense view of individual.The philosophy of biology reflects on the“biological individuality”and gives various standards of biological individuality.However,the seemingly different viewpoints are metaphysically homogeneous,and they share a set of“bundle theory”in different themes and levels.The“biological individual”is a very special natural kind because it contains the“individual”itself,making the discussion more complex.Therefore,the question“what is biological individuality”is best formulated as a two-level question:what is individual?And what is life?The former is a metaphysical problem,and the latter a scientific one.To fundamentally understand“individual”,we need to go deep into metaphysics,grasp the philosophical context,and deal with the classical problem of the relationship between individual and universal under the new background of modern science.