Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-21-2025
Published In
Integrative And Comparative Biology
Abstract
Developmental plasticity and holobiont theory have undermined the normative concepts of biological individuality. However, such traditional ideas of biological individuality have helped define and support Western ethical views into the 21st century. Guided by some of the ethical formulae of Simone Weil, Hans Jonas, and Alastair MacIntyre, this essay attempts to outline some possible trajectories for an ethics that is bounded by these new biological paradigms of environmental agency. Specifically, the ecological developmental biology concepts of plasticity and holobiont theory permit the “ethics of attention” to focus on the partnerships of living beings. Highlighting environmentally integrated life cycles and their sympoietic comings-into being provides new perspectives on life and on the roles of science in larger cultural contexts.
Recommended Citation
Scott F. Gilbert.
(2025).
"Ethical Implications Of Being A Holobiont".
Integrative And Comparative Biology.
DOI: 10.1093/icb/icaf124
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-biology/719
Comments
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Integrative And Comparative Biology following peer review. The version of record is available online: Scott Gilbert, Ethical Implications of Being a Holobiont, Integrative and Comparative Biology, 2025;, icaf124.