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The Superorganism Metaphor: Then and Now

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Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Sciences ((SOSC,volume 18))

Abstract

As John Maynard Smith1 has said: Our choice of models, and to some extent our choice of words to describe them is important because it affects how we think about the world … our choice of model decides what phenomena we regard as readily explicable, and which need further investigation, (p. 120.)

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Notes

  1. John Maynard Smith, “How To Model Evolution” in J. Dupre (ed.), The Latest on the Best (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987), pp. 119–131.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, San Diego, USA

    Sandra D. Mitchell

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  1. Sandra D. Mitchell
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bielefeld, Germany

    Sabine Maasen  & Peter Weingart  & 

  2. Harvard University, USA

    Everett Mendelsohn

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Mitchell, S.D. (1995). The Superorganism Metaphor: Then and Now. In: Maasen, S., Mendelsohn, E., Weingart, P. (eds) Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors. Sociology of the Sciences, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0673-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0673-3_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0251-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0673-3

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