THE SOCIAL ORGANISM: CONGRESSES, PARTIES, AND COMMITTEES
@article{Strassmann2010THESO, title={THE SOCIAL ORGANISM: CONGRESSES, PARTIES, AND COMMITTEES}, author={Joan E. Strassmann and David C. Queller}, journal={Evolution}, year={2010}, volume={64} }
We propose that what makes an organism is nearly complete cooperation, with strong control of intraorganism conflicts, and no affiliations above the level of the organism as unified as those at the organism level. Organisms can be made up of like units, which we call fraternal organisms, or different units, making them egalitarian organisms. Previous definitions have concentrated on the factors that favor high cooperation and low conflict, or on the adapted outcomes of organismality. Our…
117 Citations
Contextual organismality: Beyond pattern to process in the emergence of organisms
- BiologyEvolution; international journal of organic evolution
- 2016
It is suggested that context dependence may be a stepping stone to the development of increased organismal unification, as the most integrated biological entities generally show little context dependence.
Reviving the Organismic Analogy in Sociology: Human Society as an Organism
- Sociology
- 2016
Author(s): Dunn, Matthew Bjorn | Advisor(s): Turner, Jonathan H | Abstract: Comparing the operation of human societies to the operation of organisms was a common theme in the theories of sociology’s…
What are the Major Transitions?
- Philosophy
- 2020
The ‘Major Transitions in Evolution’ (MTE) framework has emerged as the dominant paradigm for understanding the origins of life’s hierarchical organization, but it has been criticized on the grounds…
Inter-group cooperation in humans and other animals
- PsychologyBiology Letters
- 2017
The circumstances under which inter-group cooperation is expected to emerge are examined and examples with particular focus on groups in two well-studied but dissimilar taxa: humans and ants are presented.
Individuality as a Theoretical Scheme. II. About the Weak Individuality of Organisms and Ecosystems
- Environmental Science
- 2014
The article focuses on general features of the concept of weak individuality, arguing that in any ontological field individuals are understood on the basis of the authors' knowledge of interactions, through the application of these general formulas for extracting individuals from interactions.
Individuality as a Theoretical Scheme. I. Formal and Material Concepts of Individuality
- Philosophy
- 2014
The article argues that if ecosystems do not have strong individuality (in the sense of natural-selection-based individuality), they still possess a weak individuality, ecological theories providing the values of the variables in the formula for individuality.
In the light of evolution V: Cooperation and conflict
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2011
This paper serves as an introduction to the fifth in a series of Colloquia under the general title “In the Light of Evolution” (ILE), which explores recent developments in the study of cooperation and conflict, ranging from the level of the gene to societies and symbioses.
What is an Individual Organism? A Multilevel Selection Perspective
- BiologyThe Quarterly Review of Biology
- 2010
It is concluded that complex multicellular organisms and colonies of eusocial insects satisfy these three criteria, but that, in most cases (with at least one notable exception), colonies of modular organisms and genetic chimeras do not.
Adaptation and the Parliament of Genes
- Biology, Environmental SciencebioRxiv
- 2019
The results suggest that selfish genetic elements will either have a minor impact at the individual level, or tend to be suppressed, and that selection on selfish Genetic elements will often drive their own suppression.
Superorganismality and caste differentiation as points of no return: how the major evolutionary transitions were lost in translation
- BiologyBiological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
- 2018
It is shown that only Wheeler's original definition of superorganismality can be unambiguously linked to irreversible evolutionary transitions from context‐dependent reproductive altruism to unconditional differentiation of permanently unmated castes in the ants, corbiculate bees, vespine wasps and higher termites.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 85 REFERENCES
Beyond society: the evolution of organismality
- BiologyPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- 2009
This survey suggests that many of the traits commonly used to define organisms are not essential, including physical contiguity, indivisibility, clonality or high relatedness, development from a single cell, short-term and long-term genetic cotransmission, germ–soma separation and membership in the same species.
Insect societies as divided organisms: The complexities of purpose and cross-purpose
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2007
Although kin selection explains the extensive cooperation and common purpose of social insect colonies, it also predicts a certain amount of cross-purpose and conflict behavior.
Genes and the Agents of Life: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences Biology
- Biology
- 2004
The author examines group selection, pluralism, entwinement, and the levels of selection in the context of Species, Organisms, and Biological Natural Kinds.
Genetic conflicts and intercellular heterogeneity
- BiologyJournal of evolutionary biology
- 2004
The cases of intraorganismal genetic heterogenity discussed by Pineda-Krch & Lehtila (2004) would be better described as intercellular heterogeneity – different cells of the same individual having different genes.
Does Biology Need an Organism Concept?
- BiologyBiological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
- 2008
It is argued that the organism concept is central to biology and should not be abandoned, and both organism concepts and operational definitions are useful.
The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies
- Biology
- 2008
The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of The Ants render the extraordinary lives of the social insects in this visually spectacular volume, and provides a deep look into a part of the living world hitherto glimpsed by only a very few.
KIN SELECTION AND SOCIAL INSECTS
- Biology
- 1998
Insect societies are macroscopic, and because they span the entire range from solitary individuals to essentially superorganismal colonies, they offer an accessible model for how such transitions can happen.
Individuality and Selection
- Education
- 1980
Evolutionary theory is currently undergoing a period of rapid development, but in the process several problems have cropped up that are proving to be infuriatingly difficult to resolve-e.g. the…
Relatedness and the fraternal major transitions.
- BiologyPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
- 2000
The role of kinship is examined, focusing on the transitions to multicellularity in animals and to coloniality in insects, to show that kin selection based on high relatedness permitted cooperation and a reproductive division of labour.