Unknotting reciprocal causation between organism and environment
- In recent years, biologists and philosophers of science have argued that evolutionary theory should incorporate more seriously the idea of ‘reciprocal causation.’ This notion refers to feedback loops whereby organisms change their experiences of the environment or alter the physical properties of their surroundings. In these loops, in particular niche constructing activities are central, since they may alter selection pressures acting on organisms, and thus affect their evolutionary trajectories. This paper discusses long-standing problems that emerge when studying such reciprocal causal processes between organisms and environments. By comparing past approaches to reciprocal causation from the early twentieth century with contemporary ones in niche construction theory, we identify two central reoccurring problems: All of these approaches have not been able to provide a conceptual framework that allows (i) maintaining meaningful boundaries between organisms and environments, instead of merging the two, and (ii) integrating experiential and physical kinds of reciprocal causation. By building on case studies of niche construction research, we provide a model that is able to solve these two problems. It allows distinguishing between mutually interacting organisms and environments in complex scenarios, as well as integrating various forms of experiential and physical niche construction.
Author: | Jan BaedkeORCiDGND, Alejandro Fábregas‑TejedaORCiDGND, Guido I. PrietoORCiDGND |
---|---|
URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-100792 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-021-09815-0 |
Parent Title (English): | Biology & philosophy |
Publisher: | Springer Science + Business Media B.V. |
Place of publication: | Dordrecht |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of Publication (online): | 2023/08/15 |
Date of first Publication: | 2021/09/20 |
Publishing Institution: | Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek |
Tag: | Environment; Experiential niche construction; Niche construction; Organism; Reciprocal causation |
Volume: | 36 |
Issue: | Article 48 |
First Page: | 48-1 |
Last Page: | 48-29 |
Note: | Dieser Beitrag ist auf Grund des DEAL-Springer-Vertrages frei zugänglich. |
Institutes/Facilities: | Institut für Philosophie I |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | Philosophie und Psychologie / Philosophie |
open_access (DINI-Set): | open_access |
faculties: | Fakultät für Philosophie und Erziehungswissenschaft |
Licence (English): | Creative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International |