The immune self: theory or metaphor?

Abstract

Immunology is one of the unique products of the darwinian age--born in the controversies of that fresh announcement that all species, including ourselves, were not static entities, but subject to change as a result of the vicissitudes of time and circumstance. Darwinism postulated an everchanging species defined by evolutionary necessity. In this scheme, the organism is not given, but evolves. Always adapting, it is always changing. Thus, this raises the core issue of organismal identity as a problem. Here, Alfred Tauber explores the concept of self and traces the development of the term from Metchnikoff's theory that immunity resides in the active pursuit of identity.