Immunology Self and Non-self from a Phenomenological Point of view

Why write this new booklet on immunology when there are already so many excellent texts on the subject? Modern science, with its reductionist approach, has provided us with an impressive abundance of facts. What it is in the organism that connects all these facts has, however, not been incorporated into a clear concept. Because of this, the reductionist approach has led to a fragmented image of the immune system, which makes it difficult to obtain an overview of the immune system as a whole. This Bolk’s Companion for the study of medicine is about questions such as: why is it that the immune system functions as one organ? What coordinates the immunological functions? Here, an attempt is made to develop a viewpoint to answer these questions. By using a phenomenological approach, the factual knowledge obtained through reductionism is placed in a larger perspective. That larger perspective has the character of a concept. In this case, a concept is interpreted as a cohesive creative principle. Knowledge of immunology is a big help in being able to recognize the concept presented in this Companion more quickly. The concept that is presented in this Companion is derived from the functioning of organisms, observed in the way that was introduced by Goethe in his phenomenological method (25). This method also includes the acquisition of insight into the holistic concept behind the immune system. Moreover, the organism as a whole can then be seen as an expression of the same concept. It is not about new or revolutionary immunological facts. We want to emphasize that this Companion does not replace a textbook on Immunology. The information in this Companion is compact en presupposes the knowledge contained in regular textbooks on Immunology