Agents and Goals in Evolution
- Submitting institution
-
University of Bristol
- Unit of assessment
- 30 - Philosophy
- Output identifier
- 165200490
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- ISBN
- 9780198815082
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- June
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This book is a lengthy, in-depth analysis of a philosophically interesting mode of thought found in contemporary evolutionary biology, namely "agential thinking". Agential thinking involves treating evolved biological entities of various sorts, including organisms, genes and groups, as if they were conscious agents rationally pursuing a goal, and describing them using the language of intentional psychology. Used carefully, agential thinking can be a valid heuristic for doing evolutionary analysis, but it has many pitfalls. The book is the culmination of seven years of work, funded by an ERC Advanced Grant, and makes a major contribution to the philosophy of biology.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- -
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
