Strategies for Understanding Complexity in Evolutionary Biology

In recent years, there has been increasing attention among philosophers of science to understanding as an epistemic good. On this account, science is epistemically warranted not to the extent that it reveals truths but to the extent that it fosters understanding of natural phenomena. During the same period, many biologists and philosophers of biology have increasingly characterized evolutionary biology as a complexity science. But the relation between these two phenomena is tricky. What does it mean to “understand” the operation of a complex system? To what extent is such understanding possible? If possible, how is it best achieved? What conceptual and explanatory practices are suited to the effort? I am interested in putting together a session that explores these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

My contribution would be to look at the explanatory practices Charles Darwin deployed to generate understanding of evolutionary processes, which he took to be ineluctably complex. These include diagrams, conjectural narratives, thought experiments, and remakings of concepts he had appropriated from earlier naturalists. These seem to me to be worth reflecting on afresh as we seek strategies to help generate understanding of evolutionary biology.

I can be reached at gpriest@stanford.edu