368 Farm Ln
East Lansing, MI 48823
USA
Professor Thomas Reydon, Institute of Philosophy, Centre for Ethics and Philosophy of Science (CEPS) & Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS), Leibniz Universität Hannover
How far do evolutionary explanations reach?
The notion of evolution is often used in an overly loose sense. Besides biological evolution, there i stalk of the evolution of societies, cities, languages, firms, industries, economies, technical artifacts, car models, clothing fashions, science, the universe, and so on. While in some cases the no%on of evolution is used in a metaphorical way, in other cases it is meant more literally. But exactly how much can be explained by applying an evolutionary framework to cases outside the biological realm? Can applications of evolutionary theory outside biology have a similar explanatory force as in biology? Proponents of so-called “Generalized Darwinism” think it can. I will critically examine this view by treating it as a ques%on about the metaphysics of evolutionary phenomena: To what extent do such different processes of change instan%ate the same kind of process? I will explore this question by looking at some of the conceptual requirements for generalized versions of evolutionary theory to have explanatory force in a particular domain of investigation. Because having good explanations of phenomena under study is crucial for our ability to predict and control them, this is not merely an issue of theoretical interest in the philosophy of science – it has real consequences for society and human life too.