Main description:

Defending Life discusses the relationship between hosts and parasites. It contains detailed descriptions of the immune system and the microbial world as well as methodological and conceptual clarifications. Its emphasis on analytical abstractions, coherent patterns and generative mechanisms makes possible the distinction between genuine causality and coincidental associations and increases the understanding of why we observe what we observe.

Contents:

Introduction Preface 1 Tracks of thought 1.1 Organismal maintenance 1.2 The war metaphor 1.3 Metaimmunological musings 2 Immunobiology 2.1 The received view 2.2 The integrated view 2.3 The many and the one 3 Adaptive plasticity 3.1 Totalities of involvement 3.2 Equipping the adaptive toolbox 3.3 Exemption explained 4 Natura naturans 4.1 Situating life 4.2 Social evolution 4.3 Coevolutionary dynamics 5 Disabled defences 5.1 Failure to perform 5.2 The re-enacting of ancient conflicts 5.3 Environmental challenges References Index