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Animal inventiveness

What if animals' inventive and playful behaviours make a difference in evolution?

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Our research, at the intersection of philosophy and biology, aims to explore an under-studied aspect of animal agency — inventiveness — and to investigate its role in evolution.

The traditional view of evolutionary theory, which sees organisms as passively shaped by natural selection, is increasingly being challenged. It is becoming clear that the behaviour of non-human organisms, particularly animals, plays a significant role in evolutionary processes. This shift has sparked a growing interest in biology in animals’ non-innate behaviours, such as innovations, learned behaviours, and the development of cultural traits...

Agency, Inventiveness, and Animal Play: Novel Insights into the Active Role of Organisms in Evolution

This paper, authored by Dr Mathilde Tahar in 2023 while preparing for this research project, lays out the theoretical foundations and key questions that drive our inquiry.

It proposes a conception of biological agency which does not assume goal-directedness but considers agency as inventiveness.

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