The concept of the self has made it possible to think of the organism under the category of identity in order to account for the unity and effectiveness of the system of defense of its integrity. The dualism of self and non-self posits that an organism defends itself by an immune reaction against an external element ("non-self") while sparing the entities recognized as its own ("self").
Projects
The "self/non-self" model is based on the reasoning by analogy long decried by epistemologists, as well as the use of metaphors borrowed from social life, which lead to thinking of the body's self-normativity on the model of a community of competing pathogens (pathogens tolerated by the "self" as endogenous entities) but sufficiently unified to fight against potentially aggressive external agents.
While it will rely on the skills of established researchers in population genetics, biological anthropology and the history of epidemics, this axis also intends to open up to the skills of the "Corps, normes, santé" team in health law, ethics and odontology. Knowledge will gain in comprehensiveness through an exploration of the epidemic body in its multiple facets.
The horizon of understanding the epidemic phenomenon will also be broadened by taking into account data from soils understood as environmental reservoirs of pathogens and their vectors. The team wants to be a pioneer in this type of approach, which is still on the fringe of scientific approaches, whereas soils are undeniably important epidemic foci because of their preservation of bacterial traces for many years.