Episode
#1272 Arvid Ågren & Manus Patten: The Paradox of the Organism
- Podcast
- The Dissenter
- Published
- Jun 26, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3201
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not_requested
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Summary
******Support the channel****** Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thedissenter PayPal: paypal.me/thedissenter PayPal Subscription 3 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ybn6bg9l PayPal Subscription 5 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/ycmr9gpz PayPal Subscription 10 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y9r3fc9m PayPal Subscription 20 Dollars: https://tinyurl.com/y95uvkao ******Follow me on****** Website: https://www.thedissenter.net/ The Dissenter Goodreads list: https://shorturl.at/7BMoB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedissenteryt/ Twitter: https://x.com/TheDissenterYT This show is sponsored by Enlites, Learning & Development done differently. Check the website here: http://enlites.com/ Dr. Arvid Ågren is Assistant Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. At the Cleveland Clinic, he is affiliated with the Theory Division at the Lerner Research Institute. He is the author of The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution. Dr. Manus Patten is Teaching Professor in the Department of Biology at Georgetown University. His main interests are genetic conflicts, adaptation, and the levels of selection. He teaches courses in evolution, ecology, and genetics. They are editors of The Paradox of the Organism: Adaptation and Internal Conflict. In this episode, we focus on The Paradox of the Organism. We start by discussing what the paradox of the organism is. We explore the notions of organism, conflict in evolutionary biology, multilevel selection, individuality, internal conflicts, organisms as unified agents, and organisms as ecosystems. We talk about how internal conflicts might get expressed in different pathologies, with a focus on cancer. Finally, we discuss the body-as-machine approach in medicine and its limitations, and whether genetic confli…