June 2020 NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 133 this view has always faced what Basl calls the subjectiv- pedantic. However, for philosophers developing a ist challenge: i.e., how to make sense of the idea that position in environmental ethics this book is highly a cactus or a virus particle—or any organism lacking instructive. It is ideal for a graduate seminar in envi- minimal consciousness—nonetheless has a genuine ronmental philosophy. As for the death of biocentrism, interest. Ecoholism is an even more inclusive doc- I have never understood how the mere possession of trine that extends moral standing beyond individual an evolved interest makes something morally signifi- organisms to entire collectives such as species, com- cant in the first place. That aside, the case for species- munities, or ecosystems. However, ecoholism draws the or community-level selection was rather flimsy. I sus- line at human artifacts such as snowmobiles or shop- pect that stronger evidence could be presented for ping malls that are thought to lack moral standing. species selection, but that an acceptance of commu- The Death of the Ethic of argues that biocentrism nity selection would require shifting to a very different is logically unstable. Any plausible theory attributing perspective in (e.g., W. F. Doolittle and S. A. interests to nonsentient organisms must recognize Inkpen. 2018. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci- that ecological wholes and inanimate artifacts pos- ences of the United States of America 115:4006–4014). sess them as well. This echoes Vogel’spositionin However, suppose that community selection occasion- Thinking Like a Mall: Environmental Philosophy After the ally occurs in nature or that artifacts sometimes ac- End of Nature (2015. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press). quire genuine interests. Would this really mean Indeed, biocentrism has been on the defensive in re- that biocentrism is dead? Why could not a reason- cent years, including a retraction by one of its earliest able biocentrist allow for a few exceptions? The proponents (G. Varner. 2003. Environmental Ethics point of biocentrism, I gather, is to draw attention 25:413–416). However, Basl’s dismantling of biocen- to the negligent and disrespectful ways in which hu- trism is more systematic than any previous critique. man institutions treat so many organisms. The fact He makes a serious attempt to resuscitate the patient that this doctrine permits a few unconventional enti- before declaring it deceased. ties to slip into the tent of moral considerability The argument goes roughly like this. The most seems like a relatively minor issue. plausible response to the subjectivist challenge de- Stefan Linquist, Philosophy, University of Guelph, fines the interests of nonsentient beings in terms of Guelph, Ontario, Canada their biological goals. Those goals are determined by , or what Basl calls an “etiologi- cal account of teleological welfare” (p. 62). The au- thor argues that other (non-Darwinian) accounts of welfare either assign arbitrary interests to organisms, or else they assign interests that are parasitic on hu- GENERAL BIOLOGY man interests (and are thus not truly biocentric), or else they collapse into the etiological view. However, A World Beyond Physics: The and once the interests of nonsentient organisms are rec- of Life. ognized there is no way to constrain them to just By Stuart A. Kauffman. Oxford and New York: Ox- living beings. Recent developments in multilevel se- ford University Press. $24.95. xii + 151 p.; ill.; index. lection theory, along with artificial selection expe- ISBN: 978-0-19-087133-8. 2019. riments on mircoorganismic communities, suggest Stuart Kauffman is known for his research in theo- that biological collectives are candidate units of se- retical biology, complexity science, origins of life, lection. Hence biological collectives can also possess and genetic networks; he was the recipient of a Mac- interests. Synthetic organisms and domesticated an- Arthur Foundation “genius” award, is a Fellow of the imals are artifacts in the sense that their biological Royal Society of Canada, an emeritus professor of ends are determined by humans. Yet, these organ- and at the University of Penn- isms clearly have a welfare akin to any naturally sylvania, and a medical doctor. Kauffman is as in- selected organism. Hence, some artifacts are also terdisciplinary as his six books, which include The morally significant despite having ends that are de- Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolu- rived from humans. In conclusion, biocentrism is a tion (1993. New York: Oxford University Press), Inves- slippery slope descending into what Basl calls teleo- tigations (2000. Oxford (U.K.): Oxford University centrism—a view that he ultimately endorses—where Press) and, most recently, A World Beyond Physics. not only nonsentient organisms but also biological In the first half of the book, the author lays the collectives and some artifacts have moral standing. foundation for his later arguments. As this is only It is hard to do justice to the author’s technical an overview, readers would benefit by having read treatment of these topics in a short space. Anyone his prior works to gain a deeper insight into these looking for a basic explanation of why philosophers ideas. Kauffman first introduces the concept that reject biocentrism might find Basl’s treatment a bit the set of constraints on nonequilibrium systems

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(such as living cells) allows these systems to do Across the Bridge: Understanding the Origin work (product of force and displacement) to con- of the Vertebrates. struct the same set of constraints. This “work-con- By Henry Gee. Chicago (Illinois): University of Chicago straint cycle” is proposed to allow living cells to Press. $75.00 (hardcover); $25.00 (paper). xii + temporarily stave off the second law of thermody- 312 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-226-40286-4 (hc); namics by building structure/order and reproduc- 978-0-226-40305-2 (pb); 978-0-226-40319-9 (eb). ing faster than disorder. He then presents the idea 2018. that the universe is “nonergodic” above the level of One of the more profound divisions in zoology is the atom. For instance, most complex molecules the dichotomy between vertebrates and invertebrates. will not come to exist on a timescale that is relevant This split, though, is largely a product of our own for evolution (consider a typical human protein: myopia as sentient vertebrates and less an accurate only a very small fraction of the 20300 possible proteins reflection of phylogeny. A more natural division oc- from the arrangement of 300 amino acids have been curs between the deuterostomes like us, as well as made since the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago). echinoderms (sea urchins and starfish), hemichor- The second half of the volume focuses on new ar- dates (acorn worms), amphioxus (lancelets), and tu- guments about the predictability of evolution. Kauff- nicates (sea squirts), and the protostomes, which man argues that although physics may advance our includes arthropods and mollusks. Yet, to the un- understanding of biological systems, a reductionist trained eye, our closer relationship with the radially scientific approach and the laws of physics cannot patterned starfish and the sessile filter-feeding sea predict evolution; the complexity of living organisms squirt can be difficult to appreciate relative to the and the biosphere is too great to state beforehand fly with its more recognizable mouth, two eyes, how life will evolve. The author says you cannot re- paired limbs, and obvious cranial and caudal ends. duce biology to physics. It is this perceived gap between vertebrates and our Kauffman acknowledges that we can seek statis- deuterostome cousins that Gee attempts to bridge. tical laws to describe certain aspects of evolution, Unlike his earlier work Before the Backbone: Views however, discussion of how evolution spans many on the Origin of the Vertebrates published in 1996 (Lon- timescales, which differentially impacts our ability don (U.K.): Chapman and Hall), this book is not to predictively model evolution, is notably missing. concerned with scientific history, process, or per- Although macroevolution may not be predictable sonality. Instead, this is a scientific argument that for practical and possibly fundamental reasons, prog- proposes a particular scenario for vertebrate ori- ress is being made with quantitative models of micro- gins. He presents a data-filled narrative that takes evolution (e.g., computational models can predict the advantage of the substantial advances made during distribution of mutations in evolving genetic net- the past two decades in molecular phylogenetics, works). The author also states that the evolution of evolutionary , and paleon- nonergodic systems is dependent on their history; it tology. These new data provide surprising insights. would be interesting to consider how the correspond- One might anticipate an evolutionary record show- ing restriction of the “sample space” that biological ing a slow accumulation of novel vertebrate features systems can explore (e.g., fitness effects of new genetic that ultimately results in our unified complex visceral mutations can depend on existing mutations), and feeding apparatus hafted onto our mobile body de- the fact that living organisms are subject to the laws veloped from segmented somites. Instead, we see that of physics, may aid rather than hinder predictive mod- the vertebrate body plan is somewhat primitive. Pha- eling. Perhaps regimes or timescales are beyond phys- ryngeal slits have a common origin among deutero- ics, but not an entire world beyond physics. stomes as demonstrated by their shared dependence A World Beyond Physics is a well-written and thought- on the same set of six developmental control genes, provoking book. It should prove a worthwhile read and their absence in echinoderms represents sec- for anyone with an undergraduate knowledge of biol- ondary loss. We also learn that the simple segmented ogy and physics who is interested in a more philosoph- amphioxus with its prominent notochord and pha- ical take on the origins, complexities, and evolution ryngeal slits is, in fact, not the closest living relative of life. to vertebrates. Modern molecular phylogenetics re- Rebekah Hall, Mathematical & Statistical Sciences veals that the highly derived tunicates are vertebrates’ and Daniel A. Charlebois, Physics, University of closest cousins. As opposed to seeing tunicates as hav- Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ing yet to achieve the integrated vertebrate somatic and visceral bodies, the author suggests that tunicates have ingeniously temporally displaced these struc- tures with the mobile larval stage possessing the seg- mented body and the sedentary filter-feeding adult exhibiting the complex pharyngeal apparatus.

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