ERRAPHIS, Université Toulouse II - Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2022 Mar 3;44(1):9. doi: 10.1007/s40656-022-00483-1.
Biology seems to present local and transitory regularities rather than immutable laws. To account for these historically constituted regularities and to distinguish them from mathematical invariants, Montévil and Mossio (Journal of Theoretical Biology 372:179-191, 2015) have proposed to speak of constraints. In this article we analyse the causal power of these constraints in the evolution of biodiversity, i.e., their positivity, but also the modality of their action on the directions taken by evolution. We argue that to fully account for the causal power of these constraints on evolution, they must be thought of in terms of normativity. In this way, we want to highlight two characteristics of the evolutionary constraints. The first, already emphasised as reported by Gould (The structure of evolutionary theory, Harvard University Press, 2002), is that these constraints are both produced by and producing biological evolution and that this circular causation creates true novelties. The second is that this specific causality, which generates unpredictability in evolution, stems not only from the historicity of biological constraints, but also from their internalisation through the practices of living beings.
生物学似乎呈现出局部和短暂的规律，而不是不变的规律。为了解释这些历史上构成的规律，并将其与数学不变量区分开来，蒙泰维尔和莫西奥（《理论生物学杂志》372:179-191，2015）提出使用约束来描述这些规律。在本文中，我们分析了这些约束在生物多样性进化中的因果力，即它们的积极性，以及它们对进化方向的作用方式的模态。我们认为，要充分解释这些约束对进化的因果力，就必须从规范性的角度来考虑它们。通过这种方式，我们想强调进化约束的两个特征。第一个特征，正如古尔德（《进化理论的结构》，哈佛大学出版社，2002）所强调的，是这些约束既是生物进化的产物，也是生物进化的产物，这种循环因果关系创造了真正的新事物。第二个特征是，这种产生进化中不可预测性的特殊因果关系不仅源于生物约束的历史性，还源于生物通过自身实践对其的内化。
