The Metaphysics of Evolution
Dupre, JA
Date: 18 August 2017
Article
Journal
Interface Focus
Publisher
Royal Society
Publisher DOI
Abstract
This paper briefly describes process metaphysics, and argues that it is better suited for describing life than the more standard thing, or substance, metaphysics. It then explores the implications of process metaphysics for conceptualising evolution. After explaining what it is for an organism to be a process, the paper takes up the ...
This paper briefly describes process metaphysics, and argues that it is better suited for describing life than the more standard thing, or substance, metaphysics. It then explores the implications of process metaphysics for conceptualising evolution. After explaining what it is for an organism to be a process, the paper takes up the Hull/Ghiselin thesis of species as individuals and explores the conditions under which a species or lineage could constitute an individual process. It is argued that only sexual species satisfy these conditions, and that within sexual species the degree of organisation varies. This, in turn, has important implications for the species’ evolvability. One important moral is that evolution will work differently in different biological domains.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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