Interdependence

A coherent and practical philosophy of interdependence, drawing on vivid examples from the biological sciences.

Sharma Kriti :

Kriti Sharma, a microbiologist, is completing her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It is a rare treat to indulge in reading a work that switches between philosophical reasoning and empirical biology. This is just what Sharma does, illuminating the concept of interdependence from its everyday usage to focus in on the micro-scale network of processes that are contingent on interactions of organisms with one another and their environments.

—Peter White:
“Kriti Sharma has written a remarkable book that moves seamlessly from the empirical world of biology—indeed, the microscales of test tubes and cells and molecules—to the consideration of the broadest philosophical concepts that define how we comprehend existence itself. The writing is lively and the illustrations are drawn from a wide and interdisciplinary range of sources and experiences, yet the development of the ideas is scholarly, careful, and well documented. Interdependence: Biology and Beyond will elevate and churn your thinking. It is Sharma’s first book and the reader feels privileged to be present at the start of an exciting intellectual journey.”

—Evan Thompson:
“In setting forth her vision of contingentism—that objects are really webs of processes contingent on multiple interacting conditions—Sharma moves eloquently back and forth between biology and philosophy. The book is a model of accessible but serious and elegant science writing.”

—Barbara Herrnstein Smith:
“Interdependence is an exceptionally original work of comprehensive theorizing. Conceptually subtle, empirically rigorous, and compellingly argued, it addresses some of the most fundamental questions in theoretical biology and demonstrates their close relation to central problems in our ideas of knowledge, existence, and reality.”