William R. Clark
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195336634
- eISBN:
- 9780199868568
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336634.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Disease Ecology / Epidemiology
The immune system is the only thing standing between us and a world of microbial predators that could send us to an early and ugly death. It would be our only defense during the first hours of a ...
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The immune system is the only thing standing between us and a world of microbial predators that could send us to an early and ugly death. It would be our only defense during the first hours of a bioterrorist attack using some of these very microbes. Evolved over millions of years of to keep us alive long enough to reproduce, the immune system has developed an impressive armamentarium of powerful chemical and cellular weapons that make short work of hostile viruses and bacteria. It has also evolved amazing genetic strategies to keep pace with invading microbes that can reproduce — and thus alter their genetic blueprint — in under an hour. But this same system prevents us from accepting life-saving organ transplants. It is also capable of over-reacting, leading to immunopathologies and causing serious, even lethal, damage to our tissues and organs. Worse yet, our immune systems may decide we ourselves are foreign and attack otherwise healthy tissues, resulting in autoimmune disease. And finally, it is itself the target of one of the most deadly viruses humans have ever known: HIV, the agent of AIDS. Part I of this book describes the structure and function of the immune system at a biological and biochemical level. Part II examines the role of the immune system in a range of human diseases — many caused by the immune system itself.Less
The immune system is the only thing standing between us and a world of microbial predators that could send us to an early and ugly death. It would be our only defense during the first hours of a bioterrorist attack using some of these very microbes. Evolved over millions of years of to keep us alive long enough to reproduce, the immune system has developed an impressive armamentarium of powerful chemical and cellular weapons that make short work of hostile viruses and bacteria. It has also evolved amazing genetic strategies to keep pace with invading microbes that can reproduce — and thus alter their genetic blueprint — in under an hour. But this same system prevents us from accepting life-saving organ transplants. It is also capable of over-reacting, leading to immunopathologies and causing serious, even lethal, damage to our tissues and organs. Worse yet, our immune systems may decide we ourselves are foreign and attack otherwise healthy tissues, resulting in autoimmune disease. And finally, it is itself the target of one of the most deadly viruses humans have ever known: HIV, the agent of AIDS. Part I of this book describes the structure and function of the immune system at a biological and biochemical level. Part II examines the role of the immune system in a range of human diseases — many caused by the immune system itself.
Thomas Pradeu and Elizabeth Vitanza
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199775286
- eISBN:
- 9780199932818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199775286.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter offers a critique of the self-nonself theory. I first analyze data on autoreactivity and normal autoimmunity, in particular phagocytosis and regulatory cells, in order to reject the idea ...
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This chapter offers a critique of the self-nonself theory. I first analyze data on autoreactivity and normal autoimmunity, in particular phagocytosis and regulatory cells, in order to reject the idea that self constituents do not trigger immune responses. In a second step, thanks to a description of immune tolerance to genetically foreign entities, including the fetus and huge amounts of commensal and symbiotic bacteria, I reject the idea that every nonself triggers an immune response of rejection. I show that every organism is “impure” in so far as it contains a great number of “nonself” constituents. I conclude that the self-nonself theory is experimentally inadequate, and conceptually too vague to still be used as a satisfying scientific framework to explain the triggering of immune responses.Less
This chapter offers a critique of the self-nonself theory. I first analyze data on autoreactivity and normal autoimmunity, in particular phagocytosis and regulatory cells, in order to reject the idea that self constituents do not trigger immune responses. In a second step, thanks to a description of immune tolerance to genetically foreign entities, including the fetus and huge amounts of commensal and symbiotic bacteria, I reject the idea that every nonself triggers an immune response of rejection. I show that every organism is “impure” in so far as it contains a great number of “nonself” constituents. I conclude that the self-nonself theory is experimentally inadequate, and conceptually too vague to still be used as a satisfying scientific framework to explain the triggering of immune responses.
Thomas Pradeu and Elizabeth Vitanza
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199775286
- eISBN:
- 9780199932818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199775286.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter compares the continuity theory that I propose with the other theories available in today’s immunology, including the self-nonself theory, the systemic theory of the immune “network” ...
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This chapter compares the continuity theory that I propose with the other theories available in today’s immunology, including the self-nonself theory, the systemic theory of the immune “network” (Jerne), the autopoiesis framework (Maturana, Varela, Coutinho), the self-organization theory (Cohen and Atlan), and the danger theory (Matzinger). I emphasize the aspects that the continuity theory borrowed or inherited from these theories, as well as the many aspects on which it differs from them. I show that some frameworks elaborated to understand the immune system are not genuine scientific theories, but rather mere “viewpoints” on immunity. I insist that no framework has, up to now, succeeded in taking into account the importance of both innate immunity and immune tolerance – two aspects that are at the center of the continuity theory.Less
This chapter compares the continuity theory that I propose with the other theories available in today’s immunology, including the self-nonself theory, the systemic theory of the immune “network” (Jerne), the autopoiesis framework (Maturana, Varela, Coutinho), the self-organization theory (Cohen and Atlan), and the danger theory (Matzinger). I emphasize the aspects that the continuity theory borrowed or inherited from these theories, as well as the many aspects on which it differs from them. I show that some frameworks elaborated to understand the immune system are not genuine scientific theories, but rather mere “viewpoints” on immunity. I insist that no framework has, up to now, succeeded in taking into account the importance of both innate immunity and immune tolerance – two aspects that are at the center of the continuity theory.
Enrico Fainardi and Massimiliano Castellazzi
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195326697
- eISBN:
- 9780199864874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326697.003.0012
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Molecular and Cellular Systems
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered an autoimmune chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by demyelination and axonal damage. The view of MS as a “two-stage ...
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered an autoimmune chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by demyelination and axonal damage. The view of MS as a “two-stage disease”, with a predominant inflammatory demyelination in the early phase (relapsing-remitting MS form) and a subsequent secondary neurodegeneration in the early phase (secondary or primary progressive MS) of the disease, is now challenged by the demonstration that axonal destruction may occur independently of inflammation and may also produce it. Therefore, as CNS inflammation and degeneration can coexist throughout the course of the disease, MS may be a “simultaneous two-component disease”, in which the combination of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration promotes irreversible disability. This chapter discusses factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of MS, immune surveillance in the CNS, regulation of immune responses in the inflamed CNS, initiation of T helper 1 (Th1)-mediated immune reactions in the inflamed CNS, amplification of Th1-mediated immune responses in inflamed CNS and tissue damage, and development of autoimmunity in MS.Less
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered an autoimmune chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by demyelination and axonal damage. The view of MS as a “two-stage disease”, with a predominant inflammatory demyelination in the early phase (relapsing-remitting MS form) and a subsequent secondary neurodegeneration in the early phase (secondary or primary progressive MS) of the disease, is now challenged by the demonstration that axonal destruction may occur independently of inflammation and may also produce it. Therefore, as CNS inflammation and degeneration can coexist throughout the course of the disease, MS may be a “simultaneous two-component disease”, in which the combination of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration promotes irreversible disability. This chapter discusses factors that contribute to the pathogenesis of MS, immune surveillance in the CNS, regulation of immune responses in the inflamed CNS, initiation of T helper 1 (Th1)-mediated immune reactions in the inflamed CNS, amplification of Th1-mediated immune responses in inflamed CNS and tissue damage, and development of autoimmunity in MS.
Kokona Chatzantoni and Athanasia Mouzaki
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195326697
- eISBN:
- 9780199864874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326697.003.0014
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Molecular and Cellular Systems
The immune system is characterized by a complex network of cells and organs specialized to extinguish foreign invaders or malfunctioning cells of the organism. Although innate immunity, B-cell ...
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The immune system is characterized by a complex network of cells and organs specialized to extinguish foreign invaders or malfunctioning cells of the organism. Although innate immunity, B-cell function via antibody responses, and cytotoxic T lymphocytes are very important for protection of the body, T cells play a central role in the immune system and are more important for its regulation. This chapter discusses T-cell regulation within the immune system, along with central and peripheral tolerance mechanisms of positive and negative selection, anergy, and deletion. Immunomodulation in the nervous system as well as vascular system during inflammation and autoimmunity is described using the paradigms of two complex pathological conditions: multiple sclerosis and atherosclerosis. The role of T cells and T regulatory cells in breaking or maintaining tolerance is examined, together with the proposed ways of their therapeutic manipulations to ameliorate disease progression.Less
The immune system is characterized by a complex network of cells and organs specialized to extinguish foreign invaders or malfunctioning cells of the organism. Although innate immunity, B-cell function via antibody responses, and cytotoxic T lymphocytes are very important for protection of the body, T cells play a central role in the immune system and are more important for its regulation. This chapter discusses T-cell regulation within the immune system, along with central and peripheral tolerance mechanisms of positive and negative selection, anergy, and deletion. Immunomodulation in the nervous system as well as vascular system during inflammation and autoimmunity is described using the paradigms of two complex pathological conditions: multiple sclerosis and atherosclerosis. The role of T cells and T regulatory cells in breaking or maintaining tolerance is examined, together with the proposed ways of their therapeutic manipulations to ameliorate disease progression.
Philip Lorenz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823251308
- eISBN:
- 9780823252633
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251308.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The Tears of Sovereignty – Perspectives of Power in Renaissance Drama examines the representation of sovereignty in canonical works of the Renaissance: Shakespeare's Richard II, Measure for Measure ...
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The Tears of Sovereignty – Perspectives of Power in Renaissance Drama examines the representation of sovereignty in canonical works of the Renaissance: Shakespeare's Richard II, Measure for Measure and The Winter's Tale, Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna, and Calderón de la Barca's Life is a Dream. Structured as a series of questions and answers regarding the concept of sovereignty, each chapter is organized around a key representational operation performed on a “body” of power increasingly spectacularized, sacralized, de-sacralized, and, above all, troped in various ways: from the analogical relations of Richard II, through the metaphorical transfers staged in Measure for Measure, to the autoimmune resistances and allegorical returns they give rise to in Lope's Fuenteovejuna, Calderón's Life is a Dream, and Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. The book's method is comparative and conceptual, linking literary and religious discourse at the level of metaphor, and positing relations between English and Spanish drama, in terms of the “logics” each generates to negotiate the divided terrain of sovereignty. While its tropological approach will be familiar to readers of deconstruction, it also engages with biopolitical, psychoanalytic and feminist criticism, drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, Pierre Legendre, Adriana Cavarero and Walter Benjamin, in order to examine the relationship between early modern theater and power from intersecting theoretical perspectives. The “tears” of sovereignty are the exegetical tropes produced and performed on the English stages and Spanish corrales of the seventeenth century through which we continue to view sovereignty.Less
The Tears of Sovereignty – Perspectives of Power in Renaissance Drama examines the representation of sovereignty in canonical works of the Renaissance: Shakespeare's Richard II, Measure for Measure and The Winter's Tale, Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna, and Calderón de la Barca's Life is a Dream. Structured as a series of questions and answers regarding the concept of sovereignty, each chapter is organized around a key representational operation performed on a “body” of power increasingly spectacularized, sacralized, de-sacralized, and, above all, troped in various ways: from the analogical relations of Richard II, through the metaphorical transfers staged in Measure for Measure, to the autoimmune resistances and allegorical returns they give rise to in Lope's Fuenteovejuna, Calderón's Life is a Dream, and Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. The book's method is comparative and conceptual, linking literary and religious discourse at the level of metaphor, and positing relations between English and Spanish drama, in terms of the “logics” each generates to negotiate the divided terrain of sovereignty. While its tropological approach will be familiar to readers of deconstruction, it also engages with biopolitical, psychoanalytic and feminist criticism, drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, Pierre Legendre, Adriana Cavarero and Walter Benjamin, in order to examine the relationship between early modern theater and power from intersecting theoretical perspectives. The “tears” of sovereignty are the exegetical tropes produced and performed on the English stages and Spanish corrales of the seventeenth century through which we continue to view sovereignty.
Mads Melbye, Karin Ekström Smedby, and Dimitrios Trichopoulos
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195311174
- eISBN:
- 9780199865093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311174.003.0027
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
For several decades the incidence of NHL has increased more rapidly than that of almost any other cancer. Established risk factors such as immunosuppression, autoimmunity, and certain infectious ...
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For several decades the incidence of NHL has increased more rapidly than that of almost any other cancer. Established risk factors such as immunosuppression, autoimmunity, and certain infectious agents explain at most only a small fraction of the cases. Other possible risk associations include particular food products, medications, pesticides, and hair dyes. Recent evaluations of epidemiologic patterns of NHL according to histologic subtype have documented clear differences among the different NHL subtypes, which strongly suggests they may also have different risk factor profiles.Less
For several decades the incidence of NHL has increased more rapidly than that of almost any other cancer. Established risk factors such as immunosuppression, autoimmunity, and certain infectious agents explain at most only a small fraction of the cases. Other possible risk associations include particular food products, medications, pesticides, and hair dyes. Recent evaluations of epidemiologic patterns of NHL according to histologic subtype have documented clear differences among the different NHL subtypes, which strongly suggests they may also have different risk factor profiles.
Stephen Greer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526113696
- eISBN:
- 9781526141941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526113696.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Drawing on ‘queer-crip’ theories which expose the normative conditions of social participation, this chapter examines a range of works concerning illness, impairment and disability to examine the ...
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Drawing on ‘queer-crip’ theories which expose the normative conditions of social participation, this chapter examines a range of works concerning illness, impairment and disability to examine the relationship between bodily propriety and neoliberalism’s preference for self-sufficient, ‘immune’ citizens. First exploring notions of responsibility which surround the representation of illness and disability, discussion examines the tension between care and self-care, and the cultural narratives which link charity, responsibility and individual agency. By challenging narrow and prejudicial notions of atypical bodies and neurologies, solo performance suggests new ways of understanding the ethics of intersubjective exposure.
Featured practitioners: Brian Lobel, Robert Softley, Katherine Araniello, Bobby Baker, the vacuum cleaner, Martin O’Brien.Less
Drawing on ‘queer-crip’ theories which expose the normative conditions of social participation, this chapter examines a range of works concerning illness, impairment and disability to examine the relationship between bodily propriety and neoliberalism’s preference for self-sufficient, ‘immune’ citizens. First exploring notions of responsibility which surround the representation of illness and disability, discussion examines the tension between care and self-care, and the cultural narratives which link charity, responsibility and individual agency. By challenging narrow and prejudicial notions of atypical bodies and neurologies, solo performance suggests new ways of understanding the ethics of intersubjective exposure.
Featured practitioners: Brian Lobel, Robert Softley, Katherine Araniello, Bobby Baker, the vacuum cleaner, Martin O’Brien.
Russell Samolsky
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234790
- eISBN:
- 9780823241248
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234790.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter begins with an analysis of the critical tradition that ascribes a prophetic status to Kafka's texts. Skeptical of the contention that Kafka's writings were realized after his death, it ...
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This chapter begins with an analysis of the critical tradition that ascribes a prophetic status to Kafka's texts. Skeptical of the contention that Kafka's writings were realized after his death, it tries to instead theorize Kafka's claim for their apocalyptic destiny. The chapter does so by drawing a correlation between the inscriptional machine in “In the Penal Colony” and Derrida's hypothesis of a textual programming machine that programs in advance Nietzsche's appropriation by Nazi politics. It further demonstrates how Kafka's story functions as a programming machine capturing the inscriptional apparatus of the concentration camps (tattooed numbers), thereby manifesting itself as an apocalyptic text. The chapter concludes by examining Kafka's text in relation to Derrida's thought on autoimmunity. What is at stake is the way in which a dangerous piece of private writing might be said to struggle for its public existence against an author who would consign it to oblivion.Less
This chapter begins with an analysis of the critical tradition that ascribes a prophetic status to Kafka's texts. Skeptical of the contention that Kafka's writings were realized after his death, it tries to instead theorize Kafka's claim for their apocalyptic destiny. The chapter does so by drawing a correlation between the inscriptional machine in “In the Penal Colony” and Derrida's hypothesis of a textual programming machine that programs in advance Nietzsche's appropriation by Nazi politics. It further demonstrates how Kafka's story functions as a programming machine capturing the inscriptional apparatus of the concentration camps (tattooed numbers), thereby manifesting itself as an apocalyptic text. The chapter concludes by examining Kafka's text in relation to Derrida's thought on autoimmunity. What is at stake is the way in which a dangerous piece of private writing might be said to struggle for its public existence against an author who would consign it to oblivion.
Michael Naas
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823239979
- eISBN:
- 9780823240012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239979.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter attempts to develop the three principal theses that run throughout “Faith and Knowledge.” While Derrida does not himself identify these three theses as such, this chapter shows the ...
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This chapter attempts to develop the three principal theses that run throughout “Faith and Knowledge.” While Derrida does not himself identify these three theses as such, this chapter shows the extent to which they structure the entirety of Derrida’s essay. That there are two sources of religion, that in order to indemnify one of these two sources religion must enlist the forces of technoscience, and that religion and science share a source in a kind of originary faith that makes all community possible—these theses are at the center of “Faith and Knowledge.” It is also in this chapter that the autoimmune relationship between religion and science, and particularly religion and the media, is developed.Less
This chapter attempts to develop the three principal theses that run throughout “Faith and Knowledge.” While Derrida does not himself identify these three theses as such, this chapter shows the extent to which they structure the entirety of Derrida’s essay. That there are two sources of religion, that in order to indemnify one of these two sources religion must enlist the forces of technoscience, and that religion and science share a source in a kind of originary faith that makes all community possible—these theses are at the center of “Faith and Knowledge.” It is also in this chapter that the autoimmune relationship between religion and science, and particularly religion and the media, is developed.
Alfred I. Tauber
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190651244
- eISBN:
- 9780190651275
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190651244.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Immunology is the science of biological identity. Three key characteristics—individuality, identification, and immunity—together define immune identity, and as one notion changes meaning, so do the ...
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Immunology is the science of biological identity. Three key characteristics—individuality, identification, and immunity—together define immune identity, and as one notion changes meaning, so do the others. The story of this mutual dependence begins with the discovery of infectious diseases, when immunity, conceived as the response to invading pathogens, focused on the infected patient—later formalized as the “immune self.” That orientation, signifying autonomy much in line with cultural norms of individuality, dominated twentieth-century immune theory. Although an effective idiom, the self construct has proven inadequate to account for the organism’s normal physiology and exchanges with the environment. When integrated into its larger ecology, immunity’s governing model shifts from defense to the more basic cognitive function of information processing that discerns benign from the toxic. The effector function (assimilate or eliminate) only follows identification of the immune object. Moreover, as a cognitive–communicative system (analogous to the brain), the immune system’s various roles assume their full expression only when the organism is considered in its total environment—“internal” and “external.” From this perspective, beyond defending an insular individual, immunity accounts for the organism’s mutualist relationships that characterize the holobiont, where lines of demarcation are blurred. In response to this ecologically informed conception of the individual, the idea of immunity correspondingly widens. The implications of this revised configuration of immunity and its deconstructed notions of individuality and selfhood have wide significance for philosophers and life scientists working in immunology, ecology, and the cognitive sciences.Less
Immunology is the science of biological identity. Three key characteristics—individuality, identification, and immunity—together define immune identity, and as one notion changes meaning, so do the others. The story of this mutual dependence begins with the discovery of infectious diseases, when immunity, conceived as the response to invading pathogens, focused on the infected patient—later formalized as the “immune self.” That orientation, signifying autonomy much in line with cultural norms of individuality, dominated twentieth-century immune theory. Although an effective idiom, the self construct has proven inadequate to account for the organism’s normal physiology and exchanges with the environment. When integrated into its larger ecology, immunity’s governing model shifts from defense to the more basic cognitive function of information processing that discerns benign from the toxic. The effector function (assimilate or eliminate) only follows identification of the immune object. Moreover, as a cognitive–communicative system (analogous to the brain), the immune system’s various roles assume their full expression only when the organism is considered in its total environment—“internal” and “external.” From this perspective, beyond defending an insular individual, immunity accounts for the organism’s mutualist relationships that characterize the holobiont, where lines of demarcation are blurred. In response to this ecologically informed conception of the individual, the idea of immunity correspondingly widens. The implications of this revised configuration of immunity and its deconstructed notions of individuality and selfhood have wide significance for philosophers and life scientists working in immunology, ecology, and the cognitive sciences.
Michael Naas
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823229581
- eISBN:
- 9780823235162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823229581.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter explains (in the light of Derrida's work) how a nation can be undivided, by autoimmunity and democracy, especially in Europe and America. It examines Derrida's ...
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This chapter explains (in the light of Derrida's work) how a nation can be undivided, by autoimmunity and democracy, especially in Europe and America. It examines Derrida's notion of autoimmunity, and looks at the consequences of a terminological shift (deconstruction) for understanding Derrida's entire collection of works.Less
This chapter explains (in the light of Derrida's work) how a nation can be undivided, by autoimmunity and democracy, especially in Europe and America. It examines Derrida's notion of autoimmunity, and looks at the consequences of a terminological shift (deconstruction) for understanding Derrida's entire collection of works.
Michael Naas
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823229581
- eISBN:
- 9780823235162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823229581.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter uses Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis to explain ideas enclosed in Derrida's work about identity and autoimmunity. Cosmopolis illustrates what Derrida argued in many ...
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This chapter uses Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis to explain ideas enclosed in Derrida's work about identity and autoimmunity. Cosmopolis illustrates what Derrida argued in many texts, namely, the essential self-destruction or autoimmunity of every auto as a self-affirming identity. The autos at the center of DeLillo's novel relate to the automobile, in this sense, a super-stretch limousine.Less
This chapter uses Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis to explain ideas enclosed in Derrida's work about identity and autoimmunity. Cosmopolis illustrates what Derrida argued in many texts, namely, the essential self-destruction or autoimmunity of every auto as a self-affirming identity. The autos at the center of DeLillo's novel relate to the automobile, in this sense, a super-stretch limousine.
Sarah S. Richardson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226084688
- eISBN:
- 9780226084718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226084718.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Focusing on “X mosaicism” theories of female biology, health, and behavior, this chapter examines the longstanding and infrequently questioned association of the X with femaleness. Drawing strongly ...
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Focusing on “X mosaicism” theories of female biology, health, and behavior, this chapter examines the longstanding and infrequently questioned association of the X with femaleness. Drawing strongly on resonances between traditional ideas of femininity and the concepts of chimerism, mixedness, and two-ness, human X mosaicism theories seek the origins of mysterious “female maladies” and female behavior in their doubled Xs. Analyzing X mosaicism theories of female biology and behavior and X-chromosomal theories of the higher incidence of autoimmunity in women, this chapter shows how gendered assumptions operate to sustain and cohere hypotheses of dubious empirical merit in high-priority areas of women’s health research. Sourcing notions of the X as female, and chimerism as feminine, X mosaicism theories of female biology and behavior present a poignant case of gendered conceptions of biological objects of analysis influencing scientific reasoning.Less
Focusing on “X mosaicism” theories of female biology, health, and behavior, this chapter examines the longstanding and infrequently questioned association of the X with femaleness. Drawing strongly on resonances between traditional ideas of femininity and the concepts of chimerism, mixedness, and two-ness, human X mosaicism theories seek the origins of mysterious “female maladies” and female behavior in their doubled Xs. Analyzing X mosaicism theories of female biology and behavior and X-chromosomal theories of the higher incidence of autoimmunity in women, this chapter shows how gendered assumptions operate to sustain and cohere hypotheses of dubious empirical merit in high-priority areas of women’s health research. Sourcing notions of the X as female, and chimerism as feminine, X mosaicism theories of female biology and behavior present a poignant case of gendered conceptions of biological objects of analysis influencing scientific reasoning.
Anne Norton
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823262090
- eISBN:
- 9780823266388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823262090.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Derrida’s later work is marked by an apparent hostility to Islam. Derrida claimed that Islam was “the other of democracy.” He supported the coup that forestalled the likely victory of Algerian ...
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Derrida’s later work is marked by an apparent hostility to Islam. Derrida claimed that Islam was “the other of democracy.” He supported the coup that forestalled the likely victory of Algerian Islamists in democratic elections, arguing for the idea of democratic autoimmunity.Though he freely acknowledged his debts to Judaism and Christianity, he insisted on his distance from Islam, the Muslim philosophic tradition, and Arabic. Yet five times a day for the first nineteen years of his life Derrida heard the Muslim call to prayer, the adhan, sound over the city. Derrida is often seen in and through the figure of the Marrano, but what is concealed in his work is not Judaism but Islam.This chapter contends that the concerns recorded and recited in the adhan are inscribed in Derrida’s philosophy, most notably in the imperative to bear witness, and that Derrida’s work obliquely acknowledges the costs of exclusion of the Muslim. Reading Derrida conscious of the hidden Muslim, the phantom friend, re-opens the possibilities of democracy for Muslims, and for all the Abrahamic faiths.Less
Derrida’s later work is marked by an apparent hostility to Islam. Derrida claimed that Islam was “the other of democracy.” He supported the coup that forestalled the likely victory of Algerian Islamists in democratic elections, arguing for the idea of democratic autoimmunity.Though he freely acknowledged his debts to Judaism and Christianity, he insisted on his distance from Islam, the Muslim philosophic tradition, and Arabic. Yet five times a day for the first nineteen years of his life Derrida heard the Muslim call to prayer, the adhan, sound over the city. Derrida is often seen in and through the figure of the Marrano, but what is concealed in his work is not Judaism but Islam.This chapter contends that the concerns recorded and recited in the adhan are inscribed in Derrida’s philosophy, most notably in the imperative to bear witness, and that Derrida’s work obliquely acknowledges the costs of exclusion of the Muslim. Reading Derrida conscious of the hidden Muslim, the phantom friend, re-opens the possibilities of democracy for Muslims, and for all the Abrahamic faiths.
Martin Hägglund
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823262090
- eISBN:
- 9780823266388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823262090.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This essay provides a new framework for understanding Derrida’s engagement with religious concepts and challenges the numerous theological accounts of deconstruction. The proliferation of apparently ...
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This essay provides a new framework for understanding Derrida’s engagement with religious concepts and challenges the numerous theological accounts of deconstruction. The proliferation of apparently religious terms in Derrida’s late works—which Hägglund here examines through the triad of faith, the unconditional, and the messianic—has given rise to a widespread notion that there was a “religious turn” in Derrida’s thinking. In contrast, Hägglund argues that Derrida engages religious concepts in accordance with a logic of “radical atheism.” Radical atheism does not pursue an external critique of religious concepts, but rather seeks to read these concepts against themselves, thereby unearthing their atheological and irreligious condition of possibility. Hägglund pursues this argument with regard to basic notions of good and evil, showing how Derrida’s notion of “radical evil” entails a revaluation of established religious values and illuminating what is at stake in the “autoimmunity” of living beings.Less
This essay provides a new framework for understanding Derrida’s engagement with religious concepts and challenges the numerous theological accounts of deconstruction. The proliferation of apparently religious terms in Derrida’s late works—which Hägglund here examines through the triad of faith, the unconditional, and the messianic—has given rise to a widespread notion that there was a “religious turn” in Derrida’s thinking. In contrast, Hägglund argues that Derrida engages religious concepts in accordance with a logic of “radical atheism.” Radical atheism does not pursue an external critique of religious concepts, but rather seeks to read these concepts against themselves, thereby unearthing their atheological and irreligious condition of possibility. Hägglund pursues this argument with regard to basic notions of good and evil, showing how Derrida’s notion of “radical evil” entails a revaluation of established religious values and illuminating what is at stake in the “autoimmunity” of living beings.
Philip Lorenz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823251308
- eISBN:
- 9780823252633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251308.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Lope de Vega's famous play about a popular uprising and revolt throws the “organ transplant” logic of sovereignty into crisis. Here, the conceptual and representational operations of transfer and ...
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Lope de Vega's famous play about a popular uprising and revolt throws the “organ transplant” logic of sovereignty into crisis. Here, the conceptual and representational operations of transfer and transplant that effectively restored sovereignty in Measure for Measure are confronted with a dual resistance to the law's desire to “have the body,” as the structures of sovereignty protection turn on themselves in an act of political and philosophical autoimmunity.Less
Lope de Vega's famous play about a popular uprising and revolt throws the “organ transplant” logic of sovereignty into crisis. Here, the conceptual and representational operations of transfer and transplant that effectively restored sovereignty in Measure for Measure are confronted with a dual resistance to the law's desire to “have the body,” as the structures of sovereignty protection turn on themselves in an act of political and philosophical autoimmunity.
Christopher Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823245208
- eISBN:
- 9780823252602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823245208.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter explores the nexus of race and sexuality in Philip Roth's The Human Stain. It shows how the novel exploits the multiple and contradictory meanings of “stain” in order to reconceptualize ...
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This chapter explores the nexus of race and sexuality in Philip Roth's The Human Stain. It shows how the novel exploits the multiple and contradictory meanings of “stain” in order to reconceptualize the human as fundamentally haunted by the bestial traces it disavows. In addition to race, animality, and sexuality, “stain” also marks the discrimination that inheres in all social relations. Indeed, the abjection of Coleman Silk both for his perceived racism and for his sexual activities mirrors the exclusionary violence it aims to denounce. It constructs him as a rogue threat to the ideals of equality and inclusivity, even though such principles are always already undermined by what Derrida describes as the autoimmunitary character of democracy--its failure to materialize the ideals of inclusivity that it champions. That all aspirations to universal inclusivity necessarily fall short of achieving their ideals attests to the autoimmunitary response inherent in various forms of community, kinship, and belonging, which inevitably produce “beasts” notwithstanding our apparent desire for nonviolence.Less
This chapter explores the nexus of race and sexuality in Philip Roth's The Human Stain. It shows how the novel exploits the multiple and contradictory meanings of “stain” in order to reconceptualize the human as fundamentally haunted by the bestial traces it disavows. In addition to race, animality, and sexuality, “stain” also marks the discrimination that inheres in all social relations. Indeed, the abjection of Coleman Silk both for his perceived racism and for his sexual activities mirrors the exclusionary violence it aims to denounce. It constructs him as a rogue threat to the ideals of equality and inclusivity, even though such principles are always already undermined by what Derrida describes as the autoimmunitary character of democracy--its failure to materialize the ideals of inclusivity that it champions. That all aspirations to universal inclusivity necessarily fall short of achieving their ideals attests to the autoimmunitary response inherent in various forms of community, kinship, and belonging, which inevitably produce “beasts” notwithstanding our apparent desire for nonviolence.
David Wills
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780816698820
- eISBN:
- 9781452954301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816698820.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Derrida’s whole thinking (e.g. from trace to text to iterability, spectrality and autoimmunity) can be understood as an attention paid to forms of survival or surviving. So, how alive or dead are ...
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Derrida’s whole thinking (e.g. from trace to text to iterability, spectrality and autoimmunity) can be understood as an attention paid to forms of survival or surviving. So, how alive or dead are different formulations of that thinking?Less
Derrida’s whole thinking (e.g. from trace to text to iterability, spectrality and autoimmunity) can be understood as an attention paid to forms of survival or surviving. So, how alive or dead are different formulations of that thinking?
Alfred I. Tauber
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190651244
- eISBN:
- 9780190651275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190651244.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Immune theory is based on constructions of individuality, agency, and selfhood, each of which suffers ontological ambiguity as debated by philosophers of biology. In the setting of immunology, ...
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Immune theory is based on constructions of individuality, agency, and selfhood, each of which suffers ontological ambiguity as debated by philosophers of biology. In the setting of immunology, circumscribed identity has been further deconstructed by recent appreciation of the prevalence of symbiosis. How mutualistic relationships impact development, physiology, and evolution has focused attention on immune tolerance as the active mechanism that establishes such cooperative relationships between species. These findings have broken disciplinary boundaries so that a new amalgam has emerged that studies how immunity impacts ecological, evolutionary, and developmental biology. The most immediate research has focused on the ecology–immunology interface, so-called “eco-immunology,” which has turned immunology’s focus from the insular individual to the full ecological setting of exchange that immunity must facilitate. These developments are shifting immunology’s governing concepts of insular individuality to a dialectical construction of immune identity.Less
Immune theory is based on constructions of individuality, agency, and selfhood, each of which suffers ontological ambiguity as debated by philosophers of biology. In the setting of immunology, circumscribed identity has been further deconstructed by recent appreciation of the prevalence of symbiosis. How mutualistic relationships impact development, physiology, and evolution has focused attention on immune tolerance as the active mechanism that establishes such cooperative relationships between species. These findings have broken disciplinary boundaries so that a new amalgam has emerged that studies how immunity impacts ecological, evolutionary, and developmental biology. The most immediate research has focused on the ecology–immunology interface, so-called “eco-immunology,” which has turned immunology’s focus from the insular individual to the full ecological setting of exchange that immunity must facilitate. These developments are shifting immunology’s governing concepts of insular individuality to a dialectical construction of immune identity.