Department of Philosophy, Brandon University, Brandon, Canada.
Elife. 2019 Apr 17;8:e47626. doi: 10.7554/eLife.47626.
Advances in microbiomics have changed the way in which many researchers think about health and disease. These changes have also raised a number of philosophical questions around these topics, such as the types of living systems to which these concepts can be applied. Here, I discuss the human microbiome from two perspectives: the first treats the microbiome as part of a larger system that includes the human; the second treats the microbiome as an independent ecosystem that provides services to humans. Drawing on the philosophy of medicine and ecology, I explore two questions: i) how can we make sense of disease and dysfunction in these two perspectives? ii) are these two perspectives complimentary or do they compete with each other?
微生物组学的进步改变了许多研究人员对健康和疾病的看法。这些变化也围绕这些主题提出了一些哲学问题，例如这些概念可以应用于哪些类型的生命系统。在这里，我从两个角度讨论人类微生物组：第一种将微生物组视为包括人类在内的更大系统的一部分；第二种将微生物组视为为人类提供服务的独立生态系统。借鉴医学和生态学的哲学，我探讨了两个问题：i）我们如何从这两个角度理解疾病和功能障碍？ii）这两个角度是互补的还是相互竞争的？
