Dupré John
Egenis, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
Interface Focus. 2017 Oct 6;7(5):20160148. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2016.0148. Epub 2017 Aug 18.
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.
本文简要描述了过程形而上学,并认为它比更标准的事物或实体形而上学更适合描述生命。然后探讨了过程形而上学对概念化进化的影响。在解释了有机体作为一个过程是什么之后,本文探讨了赫尔/吉泽林关于物种是个体的论点,并探讨了一个物种或谱系能够构成一个个体过程的条件。有人认为,只有有性物种满足这些条件,并且在有性物种中组织程度各不相同。这反过来又对物种的进化能力有重要影响。一个重要的启示是,进化在不同的生物领域会以不同的方式起作用。