What is life? And what might be said of the role of behaviour in its evolution? (Special Issue: The role of behaviour in evolution.)

摘要

An introduction and overview are provided for a special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society concerning the role of behaviour in evolution. Conceptual separation of the process of living from the process of evolution has heuristic value, with the potential to ask better questions about both. Following a short account of the origin of this collection of essays, the first main part of the paper assesses current ideas about the nature of living systems. Because all known taxa apparently constitute a single, monophyletic group (superdomain Biota), life can only be characterized, not defined. The second part reviews the ten papers that, collectively, comprise this special issue. It is concluded that we need to acknowledge both the 'processes of life' and the 'processes' of evolution and we need to explore the consequences that flow from making this distinction. Behaviour, in its broadest sense, is seen as both the expression and mediator of organismic agency, and must therefore play a key role in the processes of evolution.