Interface Focus. 2017 Oct 6; 7(5): 20160148.
Published online 2017 Aug 18. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2016.0148 ReadCube
PMCID: PMC5566809
The metaphysics of evolution
John Dupré
Egenis, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
e-mail: ku.ca.retexe@erpud.a.j
Source/Fonte: New Scientist
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 conceptualizing 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 organization varies. This, in turn, has important implications for species' evolvability. One important moral is that evolution will work differently in different biological domains.
Keywords: process ontology, evolution, species, lineage, individual
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