Acquiring Knowledge on Species-Specific Biorealities: The Applied Evolutionary Epistemological Approach

Abstract

Evolutionary epistemology is an inter- and transdisciplinary research area that associates both with philosophy of biology and with the evolutionary sciences. This chapter outlines how, by making use of the evolutionary sciences, evolutionary epistemology differs from traditional epistemological fields, and demonstrates how evolutionary epistemology fits into the broader field of philosophy of biology. 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. Organisms have evolved anatomical adaptations to their environments, as well as cognitive schemes of reaction and behavioral patterns that allow them to survive and reproduce in the world. Non-genetic and epigenetic information is horizontally exchanged and shared between individuals at a sociocultural level. The problem of inductively acquired knowledge, or how ontogenetically acquired traits become players in phylogeny remains crucial for both philosophers and evolutionary scholars.

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