michael bradie
Bowling Green State University, Philosophy, Faculty Member
Evolutionary epistemology is an inter- and transdisciplinary research area that associates both with philosophy of biology and with the evolutionary sciences. It understands knowledge as an evolved phenomenon displayed by all biological... more
Evolutionary epistemology is an inter- and transdisciplinary research area that associates both with philosophy of biology and with the evolutionary sciences. It understands knowledge as an evolved phenomenon displayed by all biological species (Campbell 1974; Wuketits 1989; Bradie 1986; Gontier 2006a). Evolutionary epistemologists investigate how species acquire and transmit information and knowledge about the world, how and to what extent the evolved systems of knowledge of biological species in turn inform us of the ontological state of the universe, and how knowledge itself evolves over the course of evolutionary time.
In this chapter, we outline how, by making use of the evolutionary sciences, evolutionary epistemology diff ers from traditional epistemological fields, and we demonstrate how evolutionary epistemology fi ts into the broader field of philosophy of biology.
Besides by means of natural selection, evolution can occur by a myriad of evolutionary mechanisms and we briefly outline how this plurality results in various evolutionary epistemologies. While early evolutionary epistemologists favored a hypothetical realist position, today scholars favor constructivist approaches to knowledge. Th is means that scholars no longer adhere to the view that organisms re-present an outer world through the process of adaptation, but that organisms actively participate in constructing the world, by building species-specific biorealities. Rather than present an encompassing evolutionary epistemology, in this chapter we provide a research program on how to study these biorealities.
In this chapter, we outline how, by making use of the evolutionary sciences, evolutionary epistemology diff ers from traditional epistemological fields, and we demonstrate how evolutionary epistemology fi ts into the broader field of philosophy of biology.
Besides by means of natural selection, evolution can occur by a myriad of evolutionary mechanisms and we briefly outline how this plurality results in various evolutionary epistemologies. While early evolutionary epistemologists favored a hypothetical realist position, today scholars favor constructivist approaches to knowledge. Th is means that scholars no longer adhere to the view that organisms re-present an outer world through the process of adaptation, but that organisms actively participate in constructing the world, by building species-specific biorealities. Rather than present an encompassing evolutionary epistemology, in this chapter we provide a research program on how to study these biorealities.
