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One or two? A Process View of pregnancy.
1Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Neues Institutsgebäude, Room C0210, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria.
Philosophical Studies
|June 8, 2022
Summary
Pregnancy involves a complex ontological question: one or two individuals? This study proposes a novel Process View, suggesting a pregnant individual is a unique process, neither one nor two distinct entities.
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Science
- Ontology
- Reproductive Biology
Background:
- The ontological status of a pregnant individual is debated, with two main views.
- The Containment View posits two individuals (mother and fetus).
- The Parthood View posits one individual (fetus as part of the mother).
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a novel ontological framework for understanding pregnancy.
- To challenge existing substance-based ontological approaches.
- To introduce a Process View of pregnancy.
Main Methods:
- Philosophical analysis of ontological frameworks.
- Critique of substance ontology in the context of pregnancy.
- Development of a process-based ontological model.
Main Results:
- Existing substance ontological views (Containment and Parthood) offer limited answers.
- A pregnant individual is proposed to be a process, not a static substance.
- This Process View describes pregnancy as a bifurcating hypercomplex process.
Conclusions:
- Organisms, including pregnant individuals, are better understood as processes than substances.
- The proposed Process View offers a more nuanced understanding of pregnancy.
- This framework moves beyond the binary of one or two individuals.
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