Selfhood, immunity, and the biological imagination: The thought of Frank Macfarlane Burnet

2024-12-02 Classification：history Click()
Author：Crist, E; Tauber, AI

Article Title：Selfhood, immunity, and the biological imagination: The thought of Frank Macfarlane Burnet

Abstract：
The language of self and nonself has had a prominent place in immunology. This paper examines Frank Macfarlane Burnet's introduction of the language of selfhood into the science. The distinction between self and nonself was an integral part of Burnet's biological outlook - of his interest in the living organism in its totality, its activities, and interactions. We show the empirical and conceptual work of the language of selfhood in the science. The relation between self and nonself tied into Burnet's ecological vision of host-parasite interaction. The idiom of selfhood also enabled Burnet to organize and unify a diversity of immune phenomena. Rather than approach the language of self and nonself as a bluntly imposed metaphor, we focus on its endogenous origins and immanent uses in immunology.

Keywords:  biological thought-style; immunology; self and nonself

DOI: 10.1023/A:1006657124783

Source：BIOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY

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