Evolutionary theory has tremendous explanatory power when it comes to describing the biological world. A near-biological field that makes increasing use of evolutionary theory, its language, and its concepts is the Origins of Life field, which is aimed at explaining the development of extant life from the chemistry on early Earth. However, it is currently unclear to what extent the use of evolutionary theory in Origins of Life research is justified. How, if at all, can evolutionary theory be applied to the earliest stages of life? Does evolutionary theory have real explanatory power when applied to Origins of Life research, or is its value purely heuristic, or even merely metaphorical?
Part of the answer to these questions requires an understanding of what it means for evolutionary theory to be applicable beyond its domain of origin. How should novel applications of evolutionary theory to not-canonically evolutionary domains be evaluated? After introducing the Origins of Life field and the central question of the applicability of evolutionary theory, I will focus on the more philosophical question of how one should go about evaluating applications of evolutionary theory generally. The most common approach is to evaluate these applications based on how closely they resemble the application of evolutionary theory as it occurs in evolutionary biology. Call this theory-oriented evaluation. In this talk, I will try to make the case that theory-oriented evaluation is the wrong way to go. I will argue that evolutionary theory is a scientifically promiscuous theory, and I will identify three sources of that promiscuity within the part of evolutionary theory known as evolution by natural selection. In my view, the scientific promiscuity of evolutionary theory should lead one to adopt a liberal, domain-oriented evaluative perspective, where the use of the application within the new domain is the key evaluative metric, rather than its match to standard evolutionary theory.
Biographical note:
Dr. Ludo L.J. Schoenmakers is a philosopher and molecular biologist who works at the interface of biology, chemistry, and philosophy. He studied philosophy and molecular biology at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He subsequently completed a PhD in synthetic biology at Radboud University, the Netherlands, working on membrane protein insertion and biomolecular condensation. Afterwards, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the KLI, working on the applicability of evolutionary theory to Origins of Life research. Currently, he is a Hans Przibram Postdoctoral Fellow at the KLI, working on scientific controversy and evolutionary theory.
