A project of The Nature Institute
Biology Worthy of Life
Quote of the Week
(May 17, 2021)
In every sphere of knowledge it’s easy to put out of mind those questions that are so fundamental and yet so seemingly impenetrable that they leave everything we think we understand woefully ungrounded. Biology is no exception.
Who, or what, is the organism, and what guarantees the remarkable unity of character, the distinctive and recognizable way of being, consistently achieved by the developing individuals of a species? Where do we look for the guarantor of this unity if we are unwilling to commit the obvious error of making a particular part of the organism — or an ever-varying collection of parts — an explanation for the integral performance of the whole?
(from “Who Are You and Who Am I and Who Are We?”)
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