An Evolutionary Story of Agency

This open access book exposes the role of "agency" in the history of life. Agency is understood as the capacity of an organism to act, make decisions, and exercise control over its actions in order to achieve goals or to navigate and interact with its environment. The question of agency has become a...

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Những tác giả chính: Moreno, Álvaro, Peretó, Juli
Định dạng: Online
Ngôn ngữ:Tiếng Anh
Được phát hành: Springer Nature 2025
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Truy cập trực tuyến:ONIX_20251020T130859_9783032056443_7
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author Moreno, Álvaro
Peretó, Juli
author_browse Moreno, Álvaro
Peretó, Juli
author_facet Moreno, Álvaro
Peretó, Juli
author_sort Moreno, Álvaro
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This open access book exposes the role of "agency" in the history of life. Agency is understood as the capacity of an organism to act, make decisions, and exercise control over its actions in order to achieve goals or to navigate and interact with its environment. The question of agency has become a hot and controversial topic in Biology and Philosophy of the Natural Sciences. This volume studies said topic through its historical expressions, investigating how and why it has appeared, and what was its selective advantage in the past, assuming a continuity in how it has evolved in different life forms. By also explaining how and why agency has evolved and become more complex in some branches of the tree of life, the authors show how life has made its way on our planet with forms of agency as diverse as those shown by bacteria, plants or animals, which are the most sophisticated and complex agents. The book is of great interest to a broad audience, whether philosophically or biologically inclined, interested in understanding fundamental aspects of how life works and in seeking explanations for why life has been so successful on planet Earth.
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publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1683872025-10-21T05:09:09Z An Evolutionary Story of Agency Moreno, Álvaro Peretó, Juli Evolution of agency living beings as agents adaptive agency minimal agency and the origin of life Bacterial motility and chemotaxis biological function Biological purpose and teleonomy Teleonomy Niche construction Open Access thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAJ Evolution thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSC Developmental biology thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science This open access book exposes the role of "agency" in the history of life. Agency is understood as the capacity of an organism to act, make decisions, and exercise control over its actions in order to achieve goals or to navigate and interact with its environment. The question of agency has become a hot and controversial topic in Biology and Philosophy of the Natural Sciences. This volume studies said topic through its historical expressions, investigating how and why it has appeared, and what was its selective advantage in the past, assuming a continuity in how it has evolved in different life forms. By also explaining how and why agency has evolved and become more complex in some branches of the tree of life, the authors show how life has made its way on our planet with forms of agency as diverse as those shown by bacteria, plants or animals, which are the most sophisticated and complex agents. The book is of great interest to a broad audience, whether philosophically or biologically inclined, interested in understanding fundamental aspects of how life works and in seeking explanations for why life has been so successful on planet Earth. 2025-10-21T05:09:08Z 2025-10-21T05:09:08Z 2025-10-20T11:12:12Z 2026 book ONIX_20251020T130859_9783032056443_7 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/107640 9783032056443 9783032056436 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/168387 eng Foundations for Interdisciplinarity in the Life Sciences: Concise Monographs; Religion and Philosophy; Philosophy and Religion (R0) open access image/jpeg n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/107640/1/9783032056443.pdf Springer Nature Springer 10.1007/978-3-032-05644-3 10.1007/978-3-032-05644-3 9fa3421d-f917-4153-b9ab-fc337c396b5a 9783032056443 9783032056436 Springer 108 Cham open access
spellingShingle Evolution of agency
living beings as agents
adaptive agency
minimal agency and the origin of life
Bacterial motility and chemotaxis
biological function
Biological purpose and teleonomy
Teleonomy
Niche construction
Open Access
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAJ Evolution
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSC Developmental biology
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science
Moreno, Álvaro
Peretó, Juli
An Evolutionary Story of Agency
title An Evolutionary Story of Agency
title_full An Evolutionary Story of Agency
title_fullStr An Evolutionary Story of Agency
title_full_unstemmed An Evolutionary Story of Agency
title_short An Evolutionary Story of Agency
title_sort evolutionary story of agency
topic Evolution of agency
living beings as agents
adaptive agency
minimal agency and the origin of life
Bacterial motility and chemotaxis
biological function
Biological purpose and teleonomy
Teleonomy
Niche construction
Open Access
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAJ Evolution
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSC Developmental biology
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science
topic_facet Evolution of agency
living beings as agents
adaptive agency
minimal agency and the origin of life
Bacterial motility and chemotaxis
biological function
Biological purpose and teleonomy
Teleonomy
Niche construction
Open Access
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSA Life sciences: general issues::PSAJ Evolution
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PS Biology, life sciences::PSC Developmental biology
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDA Philosophy of science
url ONIX_20251020T130859_9783032056443_7
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