The Continuum of Life

In this study, Blaise Mulhauser proposes that life should be viewed not as a collection of discrete organisms, but as a dynamic continuum. 

For centuries, biology has viewed living beings as separate individuals, defined by identity, competition, adaptation, and the boundary between self and non-self. Yet recent advances in microbiology, genetics, epigenetics, and the study of symbiosis suggest a radically different picture: life does not evolve only through isolated organisms struggling for survival, but through networks, associations, exchanges, and continuous interactions. In The Continuum of Life, Blaise Mulhauser proposes a new way of understanding the living world. Drawing on examples from microbiota, plants, fungi, animals, soils, ecosystems, and planetary cycles, he argues that life must be considered as a whole: a dynamic continuum in which organisms, environments, and microorganisms are inseparably linked. From the role of gut bacteria in behavior and consciousness to the symbiotic relationships that shape plants, soils, and biogeochemical cycles, the book invites readers to rethink what life is, where individuality begins and ends, and how living systems evolve. At once scientific, philosophical, and ecological, The Continuum of Life challenges the anthropocentric assumptions that still shape biology. It offers a bold contribution to contemporary debates on evolution, symbiosis, consciousness, biodiversity, and our place within the living world. The foreword clearly sets out this ambition: to move beyond a partial, anthropocentric view of evolution and to understand the living world as a whole, structured by interspecific links that have always existed.