Evolutionary Theory and the Origins of Life

Within the Origins of Life (OoL) field, scientists are making increasing use of evolutionary language to describe their systems. Simple chemical systems that are thought to capture plausible early stages of life are routinely described as ‘Darwinian’, ‘evolutionary’, or as showing ‘natural selection’ similarly to extant life. In this project, I investigate how – if at all – evolutionary theory can be applied to the pre-biological emergence and development of life. Understanding if and how this is possible requires answering a number of questions: How can contemporary evolutionary theory be applied beyond biology from the perspective of evolutionary theory itself? How should we conceptualize the pre-biological emergence and development of early life to which OoL researchers are supposedly able to apply (parts of) evolutionary theory? Do these applications make sense because each step in the origins of life simply was evolutionary? Or do these applications serve a more heuristic function, or are they merely metaphorical? For an overview of the current state of the field, see my recent review of these issues.

Scientific Controversy and Evolutionary Theory

Evolutionary theory is one of our most successful scientific theories. A defining period in its development has been the formulation of the modern synthesis framework, which came to dominate evolutionary biology during the 1940s/1950s. However, the modern synthesis framework was not universally and uncritically accepted. Since the 1970s, various proposals for reform have been put forward. As a Hans Przibram Postdoctoral Fellow at the KLI, I will investigate the argumentative cogency of these proposals, as part of a larger project aimed at understanding the role of scientific controversy within evolutionary biology.

Philosophy of Animal Behaviour Science

Animal behaviour science has become a mainstay of the biological sciences since the work of Konrad Lorenz and Nicolaas Tinbergen (for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, together with Karl von Frisch). Animal behaviour science throws up numerous interesting philosophical questions, one of which is on the nature of scientific understanding of animal behaviour. I am currently investigating the role of understanding in this field using a philosophy of science in practice (PSP) approach. During an extended research stay at the Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle (KLF), I have set-up a participant observation study in combination with interviews with animal behaviour scientists. I am currently writing up the results, as well as working on extending this project.

Philosophy of Synthetic Biology

My previous experimental work was focused on the functionalization of synthetic cell-like structures, particularly phospholipid vesicles and a variety of biomolecular condensates. I maintain an interest in philosophical topics related to this work, particularly in the nature of definitions of life and their use in the life sciences, where I have previously defended a pragmatic view.

Other Interests

I have a wide range of topics in which I am interested. These include the history of analytic philosophy; the realism/anti-realism/pragmatism debate in philosophy generally and in philosophy of science in particular; the status of contemporary analytic metaphysics; and the history and significance of glass in science and thought (about which I hope to write a book one day).