Reflections on the Study of Biological Agency and its Evolution

Abstract

What is biological agency? Is it relevant for evolution? How should it be studied? Using Michael Tomasello’s recently published The Evolution of Agency as a point of departure, this essay emphasizes the ability to undertake inquiry with multiple working characterizations of agency rather than a single consensus definition. These characterizations should be empirically interrogated using well-justified investigative systems and the choices for individual models should be explicitly indicated (e.g., focusing on social interactions surrounding foraging but ignoring parenting). Additionally, the availability of different types of models, such as feedback control versus dynamical systems, should be acknowledged and explored. The result is a possibility space of different research projects where the diverse epistemic issues at stake are open to scrutiny and evaluation, thereby potentially fostering novel ways of studying the many dimensions of biological agency and their evolution.

Keywords: agency; definitions; Extended Evolutionary Synthesis; modeling practices; organisms; scientific models