 Thus, by responding to the inner and outer environments of the organism, the immune system participates in many capacities to coordinate diverse physiological functions and to provide communication between them. Immunity thus relies upon cognitive functions coupled to an array of effector mechanisms that have wide-ranging regulative, reparative, and defensive capabilities. Beyond the philosophical significance of these immune-mediated functions, studies of immunity are uniquely positioned to address central problems in  philosophy of biology (see entry)  and, more broadly, philosophy of science. These include the reductionism/holism debate, the characterization of the goals and methods of systems biology, the organization of cognition and information, and the challenge of integrating complexity theory with big data studies.