Biological individuality increases as species evolve upward

Evidence

Individuation of personality, on the one hand, and the influences, interests, and relationships that attach the personality to its social circle, on the other hand, show a pattern of interdependent development that appears in the most diverse historical and institutional setting as a typical form. Individuality in being and action generally increases to the degree that the social circle encompassing the individual expands. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 591 (#expands, via linked claim)

The absolute totality restricts itself as necessity in each of its spheres, produces itself out of them as a totality, and recapitulates there the preceding spheres just as it anticipates the succeeding ones. But one of these is the greater power… . It is necessary for individuality to advance through metamorphoses, and for all that belongs to the dominant stage to weaken and die, so that all stages of necessity appear as such stages in this individuality; but the misfortune of this period of transition (i.e. that this strengthening of the new formation has not yet cleansed itself absolutely of the past) is where the positive resides. And although nature, within a specific form, advances with a uniform (not mechanically uniform but uniformly accelerated) movement, it still enjoys a new form which it acquires. As nature enters that form, so it remains in it, just as a shell starts suddenly towards its zenith and then rests for a moment in it; metal when heated does not turn soft like wax, but all at once becomes liquid and remains so - for this phenomenon is the transition into the absolute opposite and so is infi- nite, and this emergence of the opposite out of infinity or out of its nothingness is a leap (ein Sprung). — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1311 (#expands, via linked claim)

But it is true that in both these active operations—maintenance and creation—the synthesis of becoming is not realized in the same way. Maintaining means denying the dispersion of instants, thereby affirming continuity in the course of their outpouring; creating means exploding an irreducible and separate present within a temporal unity, and it is also true that for the female it is the continuity of life that seeks to realize itself in spite of separation, while separation into new and individualized forces is brought about by male initiative; he can affirm himself in his autonomy; he integrates the specific energy into his own life; by contrast, female individuality is fought by the interest of the species; she seems possessed by outside forces: alienated. This explains why sexual opposition increases rather than abates when the individuality of organisms asserts itself. The male finds more and more ways to use the forces of which he is master; the female feels her subjugation more and more; the conflict between her own interests and those of the generating forces that inhabit her exasperates her. Giving birth for cows and mares is far more painful and dangerous than for female mice and rabbits. Woman, the most individualized of females, is also the most fragile, the one who experiences her destiny the most dramatically and who distinguishes herself the most significantly from her male. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 96 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Individuality advances through metamorphoses where new formation still carries the past — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1311; Species reproduction increasingly alienates the female as individuality increases — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 96; Individuality increases as the social circle expands — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 591

Broader Connections

• Individuality advances through metamorphoses where new formation still carries the past #expands (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1311
• Individuality increases as the social circle expands #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 591
• Species reproduction increasingly alienates the female as individuality increases #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 96