Organisms and Their Evolution: Agency and Meaning in the Drama of Life

Every organism is a striving agent. It insistently pursues its own meanings and purposes in the manner of its species. This is true, not only of animal behavior (as seen in our pets), but all the way down to the molecular and cellular levels. Whether a cell is dividing - becoming two cells, with each daughter cell re-organizing itself as a living entity - or replicating its DNA, or carrying out the infinitely varying work of metabolism, it is always directing its activity with a remarkable wisdom. Is this future-oriented organizing ability really irrelevant to evolution, as so many seem to think today?

During much of the 20th century, biologists, bound by the repressive doctrine of Behaviorism, could not speak of the human mind. And when, during the last decades of the century, the taboo was finally shattered, it gave rise to what is now called the "Cognitive Revolution," and along with it an invigorating renewal of consciousness studies. When biologists break through the taboo against reckoning with their own descriptive language of meaning and purpose - when they can openly acknowledge every organism's agency, as they are showing early signs of doing today - the consequences for our understanding of biology and evolution may dwarf those of the Cognitive Revolution. These consequences are what this book is about.