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Philosophy & Science

Flora or Mona Lisa?

Predrag Slijepcevic asks if organisms are better seen as singular or as composites.

The boundaries between the parts and the whole are almost non-existent on the canvases of the Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593). Arcimboldo composed portraits of people out of pieces of fruit, sea animals, or flowers. Yet in spite of his unusual artistic vision, Flora may be a more authentic portrait than the Mona Lisa.

Here’s how I see it.

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