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Essence in the Age of Evolution This exciting book defends a controversial position: biological natural kind essentialism with a neo-Aristotelian twist. It makes an interesting, novel contribution to the metaphysics of natural kinds and is a great example of what work in scientifically informed metaphysics, or the metaphysics of science, should look like. —Tuomas E. Tahko, University of Helsinki This book offers a novel defence of a highly contested philosophical position: biological natural kind essentialism. This theory is routinely and explicitly rejected for its purported inability to be explicated in the context of contemporary biological science, and its supposed incompatibility with the process and progress of evolution by natural selection. Christopher J. Austin challenges these objections, and in conjunction with contemporary scientific advancements within the field of evolutionary developmental biology, the book utilises a contemporary neo-Aristotelian metaphysics of dispositional properties, or “causal powers”, to provide a theory of essentialism centred on the developmental architecture of organisms and its role in the evolutionary process. By defending a novel theory of Aristotelian biological natural kind essentialism, Essence in the Age of Evolution represents the fresh and exciting union of cutting-edge philosophical insight and scientific knowledge. Christopher J. Austin is Head of Philosophy at Sutton Grammar School, London, and specialises in the metaphysics of science, with a particular focus on biology. Recent publications include ‘Dispositions in Evolutionary Developmental Biology’ in Evolutionary Developmental Biology: A Reference Guide, and ‘A Biologically Informed Hylomorphism’ in Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science Models, Simulations, and Representations Paul Humphreys and Cyrille Imbert Platonism, Naturalism, and Mathematical Knowledge James Robert Brown Thought Experiments in Science, Philosophy, and the Arts Edited by Mélanie Frappier, Letitia Meynell, and James Robert Brown Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Revisited Edited by Vasso Kindi and Theodore Arabatzis Contemporary Philosophical Naturalism and Its Implications Edited by Bana Bashour and Hans D. Muller Science after the Practice Turn in Philosophy, History, and the Social Studies of Science Edited by Léna Soler, Sjoerd Zwart, Vincent Israel-Jost, and Michael Lynch Causation, Evidence, and Inference Julian Reiss Conceptual Change and the Philosophy of Science Alternative Interpretations of the A Priori David J. Stump Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science Edited by William M.R. Simpson, Robert C. Koons and Nicholas J. Teh Essence in the Age of Evolution A New Theory of Natural Kinds Christopher J. Austin For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com Essence in the Age of Evolution A New Theory of Natural Kinds Christopher J. Austin First published 2019 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 Taylor & Francis The right of Christopher J. Austin to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-8153-7506-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-24085-7 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Illustrations and figures by Sam Minton Graphic Design & Illustration: samminton.com Contents ContentsContents Acknowledgements vii List of Figures viii Introduction 1 1 Biological Natural Kind Essentialism: Definitions and Desiderata 4 1.1 The Philosophical Theory of Natural Kinds 4 1.2 Natural Kind Essentialism 8 1.3 Aristotelian Biological Natural Kind Essentialism 12 1.4 Toward a Neo-Aristotelian Biological Natural Kind Essentialism 15 2 Essence and Explanation: Natural Kinds in the Taxonomic Tree 22 2.1 A Natural Taxonomy of Kinds 23 2.2 Natural Kinds and the Species Concept 24 2.3 Two Taxon Questions 28 2.4 Type, Telos, and Taxon 32 3 Powerfully Directed Development: A Dispositional Analysis of Ontogenesis 38 3.1 Dispositions and the Dynamics of Dependence 39 3.2 The Causal Mechanisms of Morphology 44 3.3 Development, Dispositionally 51 4 Ontogenetic Causal Primacy: The Fount and Flow of Information 67 4.1 The Case Against Primacy I: Polygeny and Pragmatism 68 vi Contents 4.2 The Case Against Primacy II: Pleiotropy and Plasticity 73 4.3 Primus Inter Pares: Causal Relevance vs. Causal Responsibility 76 4.4 Parity and Pragmatism Revisited 83 4.5 A More Complex Teleology: Mapping Out Morphospace 87 5 The Essence of Natural Kinds: Unity in Diversity 97 5.1 The No Such Set Objection: Phenotypic and Genotypic Diversity 98 5.2 Essence and the Effects of Essence 102 5.3 The Form of What Matters 108 6 An Evolutionary Ontology: Priority, Modality, and the Natural State 118 6.1 The Natural State Model: Being, Backwards 119 6.2 Evolutionary Ontology: A Tale of Two Syntheses 122 6.3 The Nature of Essence 127 Conclusion 136 Index 141 Acknowledgements AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements This book represents the culmination of a long-term philosophical research project which began during my BPhil studies at Oriel College, Oxford, and extended well beyond my PhD programme at the University of Notting- ham. During my doctoral studies, which were graciously funded by the Vice Chancellor’s International Research Excellence Scholarship, I was privileged to be the student of Stephen Mumford from whose philosophical acumen, pedagogical guidance, and genuine encouragement I have immeasurably benefitted. Thanks to a generous grant from the Analysis Trust, I was able to continue my post-doctoral work on this project in the Power Structuralism in Ancient Ontologies research group at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, under the guidance of Anna Marmodoro—an astute mentor, continual col- league, and true friend without whom this book could not have been writ- ten. For various reasons, both academic and professional, I am also grateful to Timothy O’Connor, Harvey Brown, Christopher Shields, Joseph Melia, Penelope Mackie, Kim Sterelny, James Lennox, Laura Nuño de la Rosa, and William Jaworski. On a more personal note, none of my accomplishments—academic or otherwise—would have been possible without the unfailing and unquestion- ing support of my parents, James and Toni Austin, to whom the credit for any virtues I may possess is undoubtedly owed, or without the love of my dearest Layla, my undeniably better half. Figures List of FiguresList of Figures Chapter 3 3.1 Genetic Regulatory Network 48 3.2 Disc Development 50 3.3 State-Space Modelling 54 3.4 Developmental Trajectory Mapping 56 3.5 Topological State-Space Model 57 Chapter 4 4.1 Topological Morphospace Model 90 Chapter 5 5.1 Hylomorphic Essentialism 111 Introduction IntroductionIntroduction For the non-random, the for-something’s-sake is present in the works of nature most of all, and the end for which they have been composed or have come to be occupies the place of the beautiful. (Aristotle, On The Parts of Animals: 645a23–25) Only a moment’s reflection is required to see that the world which we inhabit is dizzyingly complex. To observe something as seemingly simple as the blossoming of a single flower is to gaze upon the subtle operations of a veritable cosmos unto itself unfurling with microscopic precision an utterly unique physiochemical creation. And yet, despite the swirling cacophony of creative contingency which surrounds us, we do not find ourselves lost at sea. Rather, the workings of our world are anchored in certain stability, one which grounds and guides our scientific navigation of it—namely, the presence of recognisably repeatable structural patterns: for though the fruit of every flower is a truly singular blossom, each belongs to a single sort of bouquet. Our world, in other words, is one in which the disparity among the irreplaceable individuals who occupy it is yet underwritten by the exis- tence of a deeper unity—it is a world whose denizens’ shared structural con- sistencies discretely partition them into collections known as natural kinds. Though it is this fact—that our world is divided into discernibly distinct kinds of things—which serves as the scaffolding for the successes of the physical sciences, the entire evidential enterprise of the experimentally veri- fiable regularities of their scientia is itself seemingly supported by a more metaphysical edifice, one most notably explored and explicated by Aristotle. According to The Philosopher, the scientific comprehensibility of the world and its workings is possible precisely because the conceptual categories into which they are sorted are themselves metaphysically moored in the particu- larities of its naturally occurring, mind-independent causal structure. On this view, the morphological mutability of the creatures that compose the living world and the seemingly infinitely complex variability of their forms is grounded in a creative capacity which is neither unrestrictedly innovative nor contingently conscribed: with respect to organismal shape and structure,