Download or read book Philosophy of Immunology written by Thomas Pradeu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-13 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immunology is central to contemporary biology and medicine, but it also provides novel philosophical insights. Its most significant contribution to philosophy concerns the understanding of biological individuality: what a biological individual is, what makes it unique, how its boundaries are established and what ensures its identity through time. Immunology also offers answers to some of the most interesting philosophical questions. What is the definition of life? How are bodily systems delineated? How do the mind and the body interact? In this Element, Thomas Pradeu considers the ways in which immunology can shed light on these and other important philosophical issues. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Download or read book The Immune Self written by Alfred I. Tauber and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Immune Self is the first extended philosophical critique of immunology.
Download or read book The Limits of the Self written by Thomas Pradeu and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-02-27 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immunology asserts that an individual can be defined through self and nonself. Thomas Pradeu argues that this theory is inadequate, because immune responses to self constituents and immune tolerance of foreign entities are the rule, not the exception.
Download or read book Immunity written by Alfred I. Tauber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Machine generated contents note: -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: A History of the Immune Self -- Chapter 2: Whither Immune Identity? -- Chapter 3: Individuality Revised -- Chapter 4: Immune Cognition -- Chapter 5: Eco-immunology -- Chapter 6: A New Biology? -- Epilogue -- Endnotes -- References. 650
Download or read book Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy written by Inge Mutsaers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the propensity of contemporary protection measures such as counterterrorism efforts and fierce protection strategies against viral threats, as well as physical and legal barriers against migration, a number of political philosophers, including Peter Sloterdijk and Roberto Esposito, have claimed that contemporary (political) culture can be characterised by a so-called ’immunisation paradigm’. This book critically examines the intricate entanglement between biological immunological notions and their political philosophical appropriation, whilst studying the ’immunisation response’ to recent viral threats, including the Swine Flu pandemic of 2009 and the lab-bred Avian flu threat of 2012, to analyse immunisation as a biopolitical strategy. Offering insights into to the polarising tendencies in contemporary political culture resulting from the appropriation of immunological concepts in political thought, the author also shows how political philosophers tend to build on purely defensive understandings of immunity. As such, Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy constitutes a theoretically sophisticated critique of the ’semantic trap’ caused by the use of immunological concepts in political philosophy. Arguing for a more versatile and less defensive immunological repertoire, which allows for the development of alternative and less polarised forms of political debate, this book will appeal to scholars of political theory, sociology, philosophy and science and technology studies.
Download or read book Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology written by Alfred I. Tauber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-07-25 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating intellectual history is the first critical study of the work of Elie Metchnikoff, the founding father of modern immunology. Metchnikoff authored and championed the theory that phagocytic cells actively defend the host body against pathogens and diseased cells. His program developed from comparative embryological studies that sought to establish genealogical relations between species at the dawn of the Darwinian revolution. In this scientific biography, Tauber and Chernyak explore ore Metchnikoff's development as an embryologist, showing how it prepared him to propose his theory of host-pathogen interaction. They discuss the profound impact of Darwin's theory of evolution on Metchnikoff's progress, and the influence of 19th century debates on vitalism, teleology, and mechanism. As a case study of scientific discovery, this work offers lucid insight into the process of creative science and its dependence on cultural and philosophic sources. Immunologists and historians of science and medicine will find it an absorbing and accessible account of a remarkable individual.
Download or read book Immunity written by Alfred I. Tauber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-02 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 reconfigured: 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.
Download or read book The Generation of Diversity written by Alfred I. Tauber and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an intellectual history of the major theoretical problem in immunology and its resolution in the post-World War II period. In recent years immunology has been one of the most exciting--and successful--fields of biomedical research; this book provides essential background for understanding the conceptual conflicts occurring in the field.
Download or read book Immunity written by Hidetaka Yakura and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book explores the essence of immunity. After an initial review of hypotheses, models, and theories proposed to explain immune phenomena in humans and mice, it summarizes the results from synchronic organism-level analyses and diachronic analyses tracing phylogeny. These results suggest that immunity is coextensive with life and is equipped with functions similar to the nervous system. Philosophical reflection with reference to Spinoza and Canguilhem suggests immunity is part of the essence of life - and the essence of immunity embraces elements with normativity. Approaching the essence of any phenomenon in this way is called "theologico-metaphysicalization of science" or "metaphysicalization of science." This book demonstrates the potential of this approach and contributes to a richer understanding of nature"--
Download or read book Emil Von Behring written by Derek S. Linton and published by American Philosophical Society. This book was released on 2005 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1901 Emil von Behring received the first Nobel Prize in med. for serum therapy against diphtheria, a disease that killed thousands of infants annually. Diphtheria serum was the first major cure of the bacteriological era and its develop. generated procedures for testing, standardizing, and regulating drugs. Emphasizes Behring's contrib. to the study of infectious disease, the formation of modern immunology, and research on remedies and vaccines against microbial infections. Explores his relations to the rival bacteriological schools of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, the emergent German pharmaceutical industry, and the institutionalization of experimental therapeutic research. Also contains translations of 13 key articles by Behring and his assoc.
Download or read book The Age of Immunology written by A. David Napier and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this fascinating and inventive work, A. David Napier argues that the central assumption of immunology—that we survive through the recognition and elimination of non-self—has become a defining concept of the modern age. Tracing this immunological understanding of self and other through an incredibly diverse array of venues, from medical research to legal and military strategies and the electronic revolution, Napier shows how this defensive way of looking at the world not only destroys diversity but also eliminates the possibility of truly engaging difference, thereby impoverishing our culture and foreclosing tremendous opportunities for personal growth. To illustrate these destructive consequences, Napier likens the current craze for embracing diversity and the use of politically correct speech to a cultural potluck to which we each bring different dishes, but at which no one can eat unless they abide by the same rules. Similarly, loaning money to developing nations serves as a tool both to make the peoples in those nations more like us and to maintain them in the nonthreatening status of distant dependents. To break free of the resulting downward spiral of homogenization and self-focus, Napier suggests that we instead adopt a new defining concept based on embryology, in which development and self-growth take place through a process of incorporation and transformation. In this effort he suggests that we have much to learn from non-Western peoples, such as the Balinese, whose ritual practices require them to take on the considerable risk of injecting into their selves the potential dangers of otherness—and in so doing ultimately strengthen themselves as well as their society. The Age of Immunology, with its combination of philosophy, history, and cultural inquiry, will be seen as a manifesto for a new age and a new way of thinking about the world and our place in it.
Download or read book Immunity written by Hidetaka Yakura and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2024-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book explores the essence of immunity. After an initial review of hypotheses, models, and theories proposed to explain immune phenomena in humans and mice, it summarizes the results from synchronic organism-level analyses and diachronic analyses tracing phylogeny. These results suggest that immunity is coextensive with life and is equipped with functions similar to the nervous system. Philosophical reflection with reference to Spinoza and Canguilhem suggests immunity is part of the essence of life - and the essence of immunity embraces elements with normativity. Approaching the essence of any phenomenon in this way is called "theologico-metaphysicalization of science" or "metaphysicalization of science." This book demonstrates the potential of this approach and contributes to a richer understanding of nature"--
Download or read book Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy written by Inge Mutsaers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given the propensity of contemporary protection measures such as counterterrorism efforts and fierce protection strategies against viral threats, as well as physical and legal barriers against migration, a number of political philosophers, including Peter Sloterdijk and Roberto Esposito, have claimed that contemporary (political) culture can be characterised by a so-called ’immunisation paradigm’. This book critically examines the intricate entanglement between biological immunological notions and their political philosophical appropriation, whilst studying the ’immunisation response’ to recent viral threats, including the Swine Flu pandemic of 2009 and the lab-bred Avian flu threat of 2012, to analyse immunisation as a biopolitical strategy. Offering insights into to the polarising tendencies in contemporary political culture resulting from the appropriation of immunological concepts in political thought, the author also shows how political philosophers tend to build on purely defensive understandings of immunity. As such, Immunological Discourse in Political Philosophy constitutes a theoretically sophisticated critique of the ’semantic trap’ caused by the use of immunological concepts in political philosophy. Arguing for a more versatile and less defensive immunological repertoire, which allows for the development of alternative and less polarised forms of political debate, this book will appeal to scholars of political theory, sociology, philosophy and science and technology studies.
Download or read book Essential Immunology for Surgeons written by Oleg Eremin and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011-04-28 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing the necessary foundation for a critical understanding of this rapidly expanding area of biological science that underpins and explains the modern concepts of a wide range of diseases and conditions, this book gives a concise, readable, and up-to-date account of immunology in general and its translation into key areas of clinical practice.
Download or read book The Immune System written by Paul Klenerman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The immune system is central to human health and the focus of much medical research. Growing understanding of the immune system, and especially the creation of immune memory (long lasting protection), which can be harnessed in the design of vaccines, have been major breakthroughs in medicine. In this Very Short Introduction, Paul Klenerman describes the immune system, and how it works in health and disease. In particular he focuses on the human immune system, considering how it evolved, the basic rules that govern its behavior, and the major health threats where it is important. The immune system comprises a series of organs, cells and chemical messengers which work together as a team to provide defence against infection. Klenerman discusses these components, the critical signals that trigger them and how they exert their protective effects, including so-called innate immune responses, which react very fast to infection, and adaptive immune responses, which have huge diversity and a capacity to recognize and defend against a massive array of micro-organisms. Klenerman also considers what happens when our immune systems fail to be activated effectively, leading to serious infections, problems with inherited diseases, and also HIV/AIDS. At the opposite extreme, as Klenerman shows, an over-exaggerated immune response leads to inflammatory diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis, as well as allergy and asthma. Finally he looks at the Immune system v2.o - how immune therapies and vaccines can be advanced to protect us against the major diseases of the 21st century. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Philosophy of Microbiology written by Maureen O'Malley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filling a major gap in the philosophy of biology by examining central philosophical issues in microbiology, this book is aimed at philosophers and scientists who wish to gain insight into the basic philosophical issues of microbiology. Topics are drawn from evolutionary microbiology, microbial ecology, and microbial classification.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Psychoneuroimmunology written by Suzanne Segerstrom and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects the state-of-the-art applications of psychological theory to the interactions among the mind, the nervous system, and the immune system, including applications drawn from affective science, developmental psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and clinical psychology.
