The Life and Death of Animals

Abstract

What are we, and how do we persist over time? Animalists claim that we are animals. That is a promising view that seems to accord with what science tells us. But what does it mean to say that we are animals? Animalists assume that the terms ‘animal’ or ‘human animal’ refer to fundamental kinds of thing. Actually, both refer to phylogenetic groups that are not associated with any specific persistence conditions and may not even be natural kinds. Furthermore, organisms belong contingently to their taxa, hence, we might have existed and not have been animals, if evolutionary history had gone differently. But we are necessarily organisms – living material objects that selectively exchange matter and energy with the environment and keep themselves far from thermodynamic equilibrium. This thesis presents a novel account of the metaphysical nature of organisms, the living objects view, based on the bound state view of composition. Organisms come into existence by inheriting functional physical structure and life processes from previously existing organisms. Multicellular organisms are composite organisms made of smaller component organisms, the cells. The life of a multicellular organism begins when, during development, an object composed of living organisms, but not itself alive (the early embryo), acquires the capacity to engage in and coordinate metabolic activities. Organisms persist over time in a distinct way from other material objects, because through metabolic activities they contribute to the maintenance of their bound states. Being essentially living objects, organisms cease to exist when they die. Once an organism dies, it cannot live again. Some organisms can, however, survive in a state of cryptobiosis with their metabolism stopped; they remain alive and continue to exist while enough of their physical structure is preserved for them to retain the capacity to resume metabolic activity under suitable conditions.

Date of Award	23 Jan 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Sponsors	British Society for the Philosophy of Science, Royal Institute of Philosophy & Aristotelian Society
Supervisor	Samir Okasha (Supervisor)