Titel
Pregnant Females as Historical Individuals: An Insight From the Philosophy of Evo-Devo
Autor*in
Laura Nuño de la Rosa
Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy, Complutense University of Madrid
Arantza Etxeberria
Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, IAS Research Center for Life, Mind, and Society, University of the Basque Country
Abstract
Criticisms of the “container” model of pregnancy picturing female and embryo as separate entities multiply in various philosophical and scientific contexts during the last decades. In this paper, we examine how this model underlies received views of pregnancy in evolutionary biology, in the characterization of the transition from oviparity to viviparity in mammals and in the selectionist explanations of pregnancy as an evolutionary strategy. In contrast, recent evo-devo studies on eutherian reproduction, including the role of inflammation and new maternal cell types, gather evidence in favor of considering pregnancy as an evolved relational novelty. Our thesis is that from this perspective we can identify the emergence of a new historical individual in evolution. In evo-devo, historical units are conceptualized as evolved entities which fulfill two main criteria, their continuous persistence and their non-exchangeability. As pregnancy can be individuated in this way, we contend that pregnant females are historical individuals. We argue that historical individuality differs from, and coexists with, other views of biological individuality as applied to pregnancy (the physiological, the evolutionary and the ecological one), but brings forward an important new insight which might help dissolve misguided conceptions.
Stichwort
evo-devoindividualitypregnancyreproductionhistorical kindsnovelty
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
Erschienen in
Titel
Frontiers in Psychology
Band
11
ISSN
1664-1078
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Publication
Frontiers Media SA
Erscheinungsdatum
2021
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2021 Nuño de la Rosa, Pavličev and Etxeberria
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