Historical and Philosophical Perspectives Concerning Immune Cognition

Journal of the History of Biology

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 419-440

  Tauber, Alfred I ^a  

^a BOSTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; COGNITION; HISTORY; HUMAN; IMMUNOLOGY; PHILOSOPHY;

ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY; COGNITION; HISTORIOGRAPHY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; PHILOSOPHY, MEDICAL;

EID: 0031229102     PISSN: 00225010     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1004247922979     Document Type: Review

References (66)

1. K. D. Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981).
2. A. Cambrosio and P. Keating, Exquisite Sensitivity: The Monoclonal Antibody Revolution (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. xi.
3. L. E. Kay, "The Tiselius Electrophoresis Apparatus and the Life Sciences, 1930-1945," Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci., 10 (1988), 51-72; L. E. Kay, "The Intellectual Politics of Laboratory Technology: The Protein Network and the Tiselius Apparatus," in Center on the Periphery: Historical Aspects of 20th Century Swedish Physics, ed. S. Lindqvist (Canton, Mass.: Science, History, 1993).
4. L. E. Kay, "The Tiselius Electrophoresis Apparatus and the Life Sciences, 1930-1945," Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci., 10 (1988), 51-72; L. E. Kay, "The Intellectual Politics of Laboratory Technology: The Protein Network and the Tiselius Apparatus," in Center on the Periphery: Historical Aspects of 20th Century Swedish Physics, ed. S. Lindqvist (Canton, Mass.: Science, History, 1993).
5. N. Rasmussen, "Freund's Adjuvant and the Realisation of Questions in Postwar Immunology," Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci., 23 (1993), 337-366.
6. A. M. Silverstein, A History of Immunology (San Diego: Academic Press, 1989).
7. L. Kay, "Life as Technology: Representing, Intervening, and Molecularizing," Revista di Storia della Scienza Romantisme, 1 (1993), 85-103, similarly argues that the entire molecular biology program "was defined and conceptualized in terms of technological capabilities" (and social possibilities), and that this program was organized around existing and projected instruments (quotation on p. 85). Moreover, Kay contends that "the technology was central to the empowerment of the molecular vision of life" and thus served as the critical vehicle for molecular biology's hegemonic domination of the life sciences. Rasmussen, "Freund's Adjuvant" (above, n. 4) similarly regards technology as offering the "means, opportunity, and motive" (as in a murder case) for understanding the development of modern biology.
8. A. M. Moulin, Le dernier langage de la medicine: Histoire de l'immunologie de Pasteur au Sida (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1991).
9. I. Löwy, "Innovation and Legitimation Strategies: The Story of the New York Cancer Institute," in Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation, ed. I. Löwy (Montrouge, France: Libbey, 1993); I. Löwy "On Hybridizations, Networks and New Disciplines: The Pasteur Institute and the Development of Microbiology in France," Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci., 25 (1994), 655-688.
10. I. Löwy, "Innovation and Legitimation Strategies: The Story of the New York Cancer Institute," in Medicine and Change: Historical and Sociological Studies of Medical Innovation, ed. I. Löwy (Montrouge, France: Libbey, 1993); I. Löwy "On Hybridizations, Networks and New Disciplines: The Pasteur Institute and the Development of Microbiology in France," Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci., 25 (1994), 655-688.
11. A. I. Tauber, introduction to Science and the Quest for Reality, ed. A. I. Tauber (New York: New York University Press; London: Macmillan, 1996), pp. 3-49.
12. P. Kitcher, The Advancement of Science: Science Without Legend, Objectivity Without Illusions (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993).
13. R. N. Giere, ed., Cognitive Models of Science, Minnesota Studies of the Philosophy of Science, vol. 15 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992).
14. B. Latour, We Have Never Been Modern, trans. Catherine Porter (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993).
15. A. Pickering, The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).
16. A. I. Tauber, The Immune Self: Theory or Metaphor? (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
17. "Recognition" is only one of the cognitive metaphors frequently employed by immunologists. For instance, immunological "training," "learning," and "memory" are terms that also rely on a creature that has cognitive abilities. See F. Karush, "Metaphors in Immunology," in Immunology 1930-1980: Essays on the History of Immunology, ed. P. M. H. Mazumdar (Toronto: Wall and Thompson, 1989), 73-80 for further examples and a rich review of metaphors derived from human experience frequently used in the immunological literature.
18. F. M. Burnet and F. Fenner, The Production of Antibodies, 2nd ed. (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1949).
19. N. Weiner, Cybernetics (New York: Technology Press and Wiley, 1948).
20. H. Quastler, ed. Essays on the Use of Information Theory in Biology (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1953).
21. F. Haurowitz, "Protein Synthesis and Immunochemistry," in Essays on the Use of Information Theory in Biology, ed. H. Quastler (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1953), 125-146.
22. In 1955, shortly after the self-marker theory was proposed, F. M. Burnet, like most of his contemporaries, believed that protein formed in some as yet unspecified fashion on the template of some preexisting molecular structure. In his work Enzyme Antigen and Virus: A Study of Macromolecular Pattern in Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), as in his earlier monographs, Burnet struggled to account for protein synthesis, and more specifically antibody production, but now further modified to account for the information contained in DNA. he was intrigued by the theories expounded by J. B. S. Haldane and Felix Haurowitz (Quastler, Essays [above, n. 4]) and expounded a modified template theory of his own.
23. See Tauber, Immune Self (above, n. 14), pp. 161-165, and A. I. Tauber and S. H. Podolsky, "Macfarlane Burnet and the Declaration of the Immune Self," J. Hist. Biol., 27 (1994), 531-573.
24. See Tauber, Immune Self (above, n. 14), pp. 161-165, and A. I. Tauber and S. H. Podolsky, "Macfarlane Burnet and the Declaration of the Immune Self," J. Hist. Biol., 27 (1994), 531-573.
25. F. M. Burnet, The Clonal Selection Theory of Acquired Immunity (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1959), p. 47.
26. Ibid., p. 70.
27. F. M. Burnet, The Integrity of the Body: A Discussion of Modern Immunological Ideas (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 94.
28. Ibid., pp. 94-95.
29. A. M. Moulin, "Immunology Old and New: The Beginning and the End," in Immunology, 1930-1980: Essays on the History of Immunology, ed. P. M. H. Mazumdar (Toronto: Wall and Thompson, 1989).
30. The key papers are N. K. Jerne, "Towards a Network Theory of the Immune System," Ann. Immunol. (Paris), 125C (1974): 373-439; "Idiotypic Networks and Other Preconceived Ideas," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984): 5-24; "The Generative Grammar of the Immune System," EMBO J., 4 (1985): 847-852; "The Immune Self," Sci. Amer. (July 1973), pp. 52-60.
31. The key papers are N. K. Jerne, "Towards a Network Theory of the Immune System," Ann. Immunol. (Paris), 125C (1974): 373-439; "Idiotypic Networks and Other Preconceived Ideas," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984): 5-24; "The Generative Grammar of the Immune System," EMBO J., 4 (1985): 847-852; "The Immune Self," Sci. Amer. (July 1973), pp. 52-60.
32. The key papers are N. K. Jerne, "Towards a Network Theory of the Immune System," Ann. Immunol. (Paris), 125C (1974): 373-439; "Idiotypic Networks and Other Preconceived Ideas," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984): 5-24; "The Generative Grammar of the Immune System," EMBO J., 4 (1985): 847-852; "The Immune Self," Sci. Amer. (July 1973), pp. 52-60.
33. The key papers are N. K. Jerne, "Towards a Network Theory of the Immune System," Ann. Immunol. (Paris), 125C (1974): 373-439; "Idiotypic Networks and Other Preconceived Ideas," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984): 5-24; "The Generative Grammar of the Immune System," EMBO J., 4 (1985): 847-852; "The Immune Self," Sci. Amer. (July 1973), pp. 52-60.
34. Jerne, "Immune Self" (above n. 27), p. 59.
35. This distinction is summarized in A. I. Tauber, "The Immune Self: Theory or Metaphor?" Immunol. Today, 15 (1994): 134-136, and detailed in Tauber, Immune Self (above, n. 14).
36. This distinction is summarized in A. I. Tauber, "The Immune Self: Theory or Metaphor?" Immunol. Today, 15 (1994): 134-136, and detailed in Tauber, Immune Self (above, n. 14).
37. E. E. Sercarz, F. Celada, N. A. Mitchison, and T. Tada, eds., The Semiotics of Cellular Communication in the Immune System, NATO ASI Series, vol. H23 (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1988).
38. R. Ader, D. L. Felten and N. Cohen, eds., Psychoneuroimmunology, 2nd ed. (San Diego: Academic Press, 1991).
39. Most models set use systems of differential equations, but a recent alternative approach employing cellular automata attempts a more "biological" model stimulating dynamic conditions; the system's evolution is then described as the outcome of local and unique interactions. See, for example, I. R. Cohen and H. Atlan, "Network Regulation of Autoimmunity: An Automation Model," J. Autoimmunity, 2 (1989), 613-625; and F. Celada and P. E. Seiden, "A Computer Model of Cellular Interactions in the Immune System," Immunol. Today, 35 (1992), 56-62.
40. Most models set use systems of differential equations, but a recent alternative approach employing cellular automata attempts a more "biological" model stimulating dynamic conditions; the system's evolution is then described as the outcome of local and unique interactions. See, for example, I. R. Cohen and H. Atlan, "Network Regulation of Autoimmunity: An Automation Model," J. Autoimmunity, 2 (1989), 613-625; and F. Celada and P. E. Seiden, "A Computer Model of Cellular Interactions in the Immune System," Immunol. Today, 35 (1992), 56-62.
41. I. R. Cohen, "The Cognitive Principle Challenges Clonal Selection," Immunol. Today, 13 (1992), 441-444; and "Kadishman's Tree, Escher's Angels, and the Immunological Homunculus," in Autoimmunity: Physiology and Disease, ed. A. Coutinho and M. D. Kazatckine (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1994), pp. 7-18.
42. I. R. Cohen, "The Cognitive Principle Challenges Clonal Selection," Immunol. Today, 13 (1992), 441-444; and "Kadishman's Tree, Escher's Angels, and the Immunological Homunculus," in Autoimmunity: Physiology and Disease, ed. A. Coutinho and M. D. Kazatckine (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1994), pp. 7-18.
43. The broader theoretical implications of this view are discussed in A. I. Tauber, "Postmodernism and the Immune Self," Sci. Context, 8 (1996), 579-607.
44. I. R. Cohen, "Treatment of Autoimmune Disease: To Activate or to Deactivate?" Chem. Immunol., 60 (1995), 150-160.
45. A. Coutinho, L. Forni, D. Holmberg, F. Ivars and N. N. Vaz, "From an Antigen-Centered, Clonal Perspective of Immune Response to an Organism-Centered, Network Perspective of Autonomous Activity in a Self-Referential Immune System," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984), 151-168; F. J. Varela and A. Coutinho, "Second Generation Immune Networks," Immunol. Today, 12 (1991), 159-166; and A. Nobrega, M. Haury, A. Grandien, E. Malanchere, A. Sundblad and A. Coutinho, "Global Analysis of Antibody Repertoires. II. Evidence for Specificity, Self-Selection, and the Immunological 'Homunculus' of Antibodies in Normal Serum," Eur. J. Immunol., 23 (1993), 2851-59.
46. A. Coutinho, L. Forni, D. Holmberg, F. Ivars and N. N. Vaz, "From an Antigen-Centered, Clonal Perspective of Immune Response to an Organism-Centered, Network Perspective of Autonomous Activity in a Self-Referential Immune System," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984), 151-168; F. J. Varela and A. Coutinho, "Second Generation Immune Networks," Immunol. Today, 12 (1991), 159-166; and A. Nobrega, M. Haury, A. Grandien, E. Malanchere, A. Sundblad and A. Coutinho, "Global Analysis of Antibody Repertoires. II. Evidence for Specificity, Self-Selection, and the Immunological 'Homunculus' of Antibodies in Normal Serum," Eur. J. Immunol., 23 (1993), 2851-59.
47. A. Coutinho, L. Forni, D. Holmberg, F. Ivars and N. N. Vaz, "From an Antigen-Centered, Clonal Perspective of Immune Response to an Organism-Centered, Network Perspective of Autonomous Activity in a Self-Referential Immune System," Immunol. Rev., 79 (1984), 151-168; F. J. Varela and A. Coutinho, "Second Generation Immune Networks," Immunol. Today, 12 (1991), 159-166; and A. Nobrega, M. Haury, A. Grandien, E. Malanchere, A. Sundblad and A. Coutinho, "Global Analysis of Antibody Repertoires. II. Evidence for Specificity, Self-Selection, and the Immunological 'Homunculus' of Antibodies in Normal Serum," Eur. J. Immunol., 23 (1993), 2851-59.
48. F. J. Varela, A. Coutinho, B. Dupire and N. N. Vaz, "Cognitive Networks: Immune, Neural and Otherwise," in Theoretical Immunology, Part Two, ed. A. S. Perelson (Redwood City, Calif.: Addison-Wesley, 1988), pp. 359-375; quotation on p. 363.
49. This "Paris theory" is critiqued in L. Chernyak and A. I. Tauber, Origins of Self, ed. A. I. Tauber (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991), pp. 109-156.
50. Z. Grossman, "Cellular Tolerance as a Dynamic State of the Adaptable Lymphocyte," Immunol. Rev., 133 (1993), 45-73; and Z. Grossman and W. Paul, "Adaptative Cellular Interactions in the Immune Systems: The Tunable Activation Threshold and the Significance of the Subthreshold Responses," Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (U.S.), 89 (1992), 10365-69.
51. Z. Grossman, "Cellular Tolerance as a Dynamic State of the Adaptable Lymphocyte," Immunol. Rev., 133 (1993), 45-73; and Z. Grossman and W. Paul, "Adaptative Cellular Interactions in the Immune Systems: The Tunable Activation Threshold and the Significance of the Subthreshold Responses," Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (U.S.), 89 (1992), 10365-69.
52. A. I. Tauber and L. Chernyak, Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
53. A. I. Tauber and S. Sarkar, "The Ideology of the Human Genome Project," J. Roy. Soc. Med., 86 (1993), 537-540.
54. J. D. Watson, M. Gilman, J. Witkowski and M. Zoller, Recombinant DNA, 2nd ed. (New York: Scientific American Books, 1992), p. 305.
55. J. Klein, Immunology (Boston and Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, 1990), p. 335.
56. B. Shanon, The Representational and the Presentational: An Essay on Cognition and the Study of Mind (London: Harvester-Wheatsheaf, 1993).
57. J. Fodor and E. Lepore, Holism: A Shopper's Guide (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).
58. R. Pollack, Signs of Life: The Language and Meaning of DNA (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994).
59. M. Minsky, Society of Mind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985).
60. Jerne personal communication quoted by E. S. Golub and D. R. Green, Immunology: A Synthesis, 2nd ed. (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1991), p. 486.
61. M. Cohn, "The Concept of Functional Idiotypic Network for Immune Regulation Mocks All and Comforts None," Ann. Inst. Pasteur/Immunol., 137 (1986), 64-76.
62. L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (New York: Macmillan, 1953), #66.
63. Shanon, Representational and Presentational (above, n. 44), p. 45.
64. Giere, Cognitive Models (above, n. 11).
65. A. I. Tauber, "Postmodernism and the Immune Self," Sci. Context, 8 (1996), 579-607.
66. A. Cambrosio, D. Jacobi and P. Keating, "Ehrlich's 'Beautiful Pictures' and the Controversial Beginnings of Immunological Imagery," ISIS, 84 (1993), 662-699.