The Organism-Environment Pairing

A historical and philosophical exploration of the organism-environment relationship and its role in shaping biological thought.

In this first systematic book-length examination of the organism-environment relationship in the life sciences, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda addresses a crucial gap in our understanding of a foundational building block of modern biology. Taking an integrated history and philosophy of science (&HPS) approach, he asks such questions as: Are organisms and environments symmetrically related, or do fundamental asymmetries underlie this relationship? Can we draw clear boundaries between organism and environment, or are they inseparable? What precisely constitutes an organismal environment? These issues have gained urgency in light of postgenomic research revealing complex environmental influences on development and organism-environment interactions.

Fábregas-Tejeda examines early twentieth-century theoretical biology and contemporary debates across evolutionary biology, ecology, developmental biology, and philosophy of biology. Contrasting the two periods, he illuminates the epistemic and ontological nature of the organism-environment relationship and its explanatory and heuristic roles in biology. He shows how new insights from evolutionary developmental biology, ecology, niche construction theory, and phenotypic plasticity research have further complicated our understanding of this relationship.