Immunity: The Evolution of an Idea

by Alfred I. Tauber

Modern immunology traditionally conceives of the immune system as providing defense against pathogens. Alfred I. Tauber criticizes this conception of immunity as too narrow, because it discounts much of the immune system's other normal functions. These include active tolerance of nutritional exchanges with the environment and the stabilization of cooperative relationships with resident micro-organisms. An expanded account extends immunity's functional role from singular 'defense' to broadened discernment of environmental 'exchange.' This ecological perspective has profound theoretical implications, for the basic notion of immune identity is highlighting the organism as a holobiont (a consortium of diverse organisms living in cooperative relationships) challenges prevailing concepts of individuality and the self/nonself dichotomy heretofore organizing immune theory. Indeed, if theoretical interest is focused on the challenges of maintaining immune balance in the
full ecological context of the organism, then immune regulation assumes new complexity. Tauber maintains that the key to unravelling that puzzle requires a critical re-assessment of the cognitive processes that underlie immune effector functions. Accordingly, he provides the outline of a re-formulated 'cognitive paradigm' that dispenses with agent-based models and adopts an ecologically conceived understanding of perception and information processing. The implications of this revised configuration of immunity and its deconstructed notions of individuality and selfhood have wide significance for philosophers and life scientists working in immunology, ecology, and the cognitive sciences.

Genres: Nonfiction

324 pages, Hardcover

Published January 30, 2017

Reviews

[Jacqui · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched, focused, and persuasive. Tauber makes a good case for an ecologically-oriented immunology, while tracing some historical cases of early network and systems thinking in this field. The implications for a “paradigm shift” away from the defense model (i.e. self/nonself orientation) are scientifically promising and philosophically intriguing!

[Neeraja Sankaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a link to my academic review of this book: https://rdcu.be/Oh9P. Its good for a particular population of philosophers of biology/immunology but not for a wider audience. Despite my (relative) familiarity with immunology and its historiography, I found it tough to grasp.