PARADIGM INDIVIDUALS: THE HIGHER ANIMALS

I assume that there are no real paradoxes in nature. An apparent paradox is a problem to be solved. To resolve the paradoxes of individuality I discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, I need a more refined vocabulary of individuation to describe and classify the diversity of life cycle and modes of growth and reproduction found in nature. In this section, I begin to develop this vocabulary by examining the properties of an adult higher animal that make it a paradigm of biological individuality.

‘Higher animal’ refers to those animals that are a lot like human beings in that each is multicellular, composed of diverse types of cells, which in turn compose a variety of tissues and organs. ‘Higher animal’ is not a rigorous term, but its use will become clear when I detail the properties commonly associated with the higher animals. Most higher animals reproduce sexually and only sexually. Each higher animal develops from a single cell, which divides by mitosis into a group of cells that develop into its adult form.

Although a higher animal has the properties commonly considered relevant to individuality, and exhibits them to the greatest extent found in nature, I do not argue that a higher animal is a living individual of the highest degree or that it is a paradigm individual. I do not argue that the properties I list below are the necessary and sufficient conditions for biological individuality.