Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REVOLT (Representing Evolution)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-04-01 bis 2024-09-30
The Representing Evolution project lies at the intersection of philosophy of science and evolutionary theory. The starting point is the widely accepted idea that scientific enquiry involves constructing representations of objects and processes in the world. Representations can take many forms, including diagrams, taxonomies, verbal descriptions and abstract models. The aim of the project is to examine how biological evolution has been represented – diagrammatically, verbally and mathematically – in the scientific literature, past and present, and in textbooks and works of popular science. “Biological evolution” includes the process of descent with modification that Darwin described; the mechanisms that drive the process such as natural selection; and the products to which the process gives rise such as adaptation and diversity. Scientists have constructed representations of each of these in their quest to understand evolution. The project offers a systematic analysis of these representations.
The overall objective is to address a series of difficult philosophical questions. These include: do representations of evolution owe more to the biological reality being represented or to the human mind doing the representing? How if at all can we distinguish between representations that are valid and ones that are flawed? Are representations of evolution necessarily partial and /or incomplete? What is the relation between diagrammatic and linguistic representations of evolution on the one hand and mathematical models on the other? Like most philosophical questions, these questions may not admit of final answers, but grappling with them can deepen our understanding.
The importance of the project lies in its scope and integrative ambition. The project draws on philosophical ideas about representation and idealization, linguistic ideas about metaphor and analogy, psychological ideas about reasoning and cognitive biases, and educational ideas about science communication. By combining ideas from these diverse sources, the project aims to break new intellectual ground and to deepen our understanding of the study of evolution.
The project’s societal importance lies in the fact that biological evolution is a much misunderstood idea. Erroneous conceptions abound, even among educated people. In part, this may reflect the fact that humans are hampered by certain cognitive biases, such as a tendency to see the world in teleological and essentialist terms, which must be overcome in order to properly grasp evolutionary ideas. By studying how these biases interact with constructed representations, the project has the potential to ameliorate public understanding of science.
The overall objective is to address a series of difficult philosophical questions. These include: do representations of evolution owe more to the biological reality being represented or to the human mind doing the representing? How if at all can we distinguish between representations that are valid and ones that are flawed? Are representations of evolution necessarily partial and /or incomplete? What is the relation between diagrammatic and linguistic representations of evolution on the one hand and mathematical models on the other? Like most philosophical questions, these questions may not admit of final answers, but grappling with them can deepen our understanding.
The importance of the project lies in its scope and integrative ambition. The project draws on philosophical ideas about representation and idealization, linguistic ideas about metaphor and analogy, psychological ideas about reasoning and cognitive biases, and educational ideas about science communication. By combining ideas from these diverse sources, the project aims to break new intellectual ground and to deepen our understanding of the study of evolution.
The project’s societal importance lies in the fact that biological evolution is a much misunderstood idea. Erroneous conceptions abound, even among educated people. In part, this may reflect the fact that humans are hampered by certain cognitive biases, such as a tendency to see the world in teleological and essentialist terms, which must be overcome in order to properly grasp evolutionary ideas. By studying how these biases interact with constructed representations, the project has the potential to ameliorate public understanding of science.
Based in the University of Bristol’s Philosophy department, the project has been a hub of intellectual activity since its inception. The main project activities have been: individual scholarship by the PI and team members; collaborations between team members; fortnightly reading groups; regular “work in progress” sessions to discuss first drafts and new ideas; interactions with other colleagues at the university; research visits to other academic institutions; dissemination of research findings at workshops and conferences in the UK and beyond; recording and releasing podcasts; maintaining a website; and hosting conferences.
To date the project has hosted two major international conferences at the University of Bristol, addressed to different aspects of the overall research project. The first of these, “Major Transitions in Cultural and Cognitive Evolution”, took place in March 2023, while the second, “The Concept of Fitness in Evolutionary Biology”, took place in April 2024. Both conferences were run in hybrid format, with both in-person and online delegates. This allowed for maximal participation while keeping the environmental impact modest.
The main results of the project so far include: (i) a logico-philosophical diagnosis of the continuing appeal of essentialist representations in evolutionary biology; (ii) a study of whether the metaphor of purpose remains valid in certain complex evolutionary models; (iii) an investigation of how concepts and models from social evolution theory have been utilized by cancer biologists; (iv) a novel analysis of some of the problems inherent in extrapolating models from biological to cultural evolution; (v) an analysis of the representations of evolution employed in cognitive palaeoanthropology; (vi) an analysis of the linguistic descriptors used in discussions of biological individuality and why they are often misleading; (vii) a novel analysis of the concept of fitness, which lies at the heart of all representations of evolution. These results have led to a series of publications in leading philosophical and scientific journals and in edited collections. Peer-reviewed journals in which project results have been published include: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Nous, Synthese, Biological Theory, and many others.
To date the project has hosted two major international conferences at the University of Bristol, addressed to different aspects of the overall research project. The first of these, “Major Transitions in Cultural and Cognitive Evolution”, took place in March 2023, while the second, “The Concept of Fitness in Evolutionary Biology”, took place in April 2024. Both conferences were run in hybrid format, with both in-person and online delegates. This allowed for maximal participation while keeping the environmental impact modest.
The main results of the project so far include: (i) a logico-philosophical diagnosis of the continuing appeal of essentialist representations in evolutionary biology; (ii) a study of whether the metaphor of purpose remains valid in certain complex evolutionary models; (iii) an investigation of how concepts and models from social evolution theory have been utilized by cancer biologists; (iv) a novel analysis of some of the problems inherent in extrapolating models from biological to cultural evolution; (v) an analysis of the representations of evolution employed in cognitive palaeoanthropology; (vi) an analysis of the linguistic descriptors used in discussions of biological individuality and why they are often misleading; (vii) a novel analysis of the concept of fitness, which lies at the heart of all representations of evolution. These results have led to a series of publications in leading philosophical and scientific journals and in edited collections. Peer-reviewed journals in which project results have been published include: British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Nous, Synthese, Biological Theory, and many others.
The project’s research results go beyond the state of the art in a number of respects. The project’s study of essentialist representations in biology provides, for the first time, a fully clear and logically explicit analysis of the respects in which evolutionary ideas bear on issues in traditional essentialist metaphysics. The project’s study of metaphors of purpose in complex evolutionary models provide a novel analysis of the limits of teleological representations of evolution. The project’s study of generalizing evolutionary ideas from the biological to the cultural domain provides a new way of looking at an old topic, namely the relation between biological and cultural evolution. The project’s analysis of linguistic descriptors found in the literature on biological individuality has yielded fresh insights into the source of some of the confusions in this literature. The project’s study of how concepts and models from social evolution theory have been applied to cancer provides new insight into the heuristic value of extrapolating representations from one scientific area to another.
The expected results by the end of the project include a study by the PI of the relationship between models of evolution and other representational devices, in particular metaphors, diagrams and analogies. This is a long and complex piece of work, bringing together all of the main project themes, that will culminate in a monograph. Other expected results include a study by one of the postdoctoral researchers of conceptual issues in the field of cultural phylogenetics; a study by another postdoctoral researcher of the epistemic risks involved in using oversimplified game-theoretic models of evolution; and a joint piece of work by the PI and the project’s PhD student examining how biological evolution is explained and described in works of popular science, in particular on social media. All of these results will lead to further publications in philosophical and scientific journals.
The expected results by the end of the project include a study by the PI of the relationship between models of evolution and other representational devices, in particular metaphors, diagrams and analogies. This is a long and complex piece of work, bringing together all of the main project themes, that will culminate in a monograph. Other expected results include a study by one of the postdoctoral researchers of conceptual issues in the field of cultural phylogenetics; a study by another postdoctoral researcher of the epistemic risks involved in using oversimplified game-theoretic models of evolution; and a joint piece of work by the PI and the project’s PhD student examining how biological evolution is explained and described in works of popular science, in particular on social media. All of these results will lead to further publications in philosophical and scientific journals.