Muszynski, E et Malaterre, C
(2019).
« Best behaviour: a non-binary conceptualization of behaviour in biology ».
Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (Part C), 79.
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Résumé
Behaviour is a widespread object of research in biology, yet it is often left undefined, and the variety of existing definitions have not led to a consensus. Weargue that the fundamental problem in defining behaviour has been the assumption that the concept must be categorical: either a phenomenon is a behaviour or it is not. We propose instead that ‘behaviour’ is best understood as a spectrum concept. We have identified three major characteristics of phenomena which, we argue, fuel the intuitions of biologists regarding the classification of cases as behaviour. All are related to the mechanistic explanations put forth to account for the phenomena, and are (i) the complexity of the mechanism, (ii) the stability of the constitutive entities, and (iii) the quantity and significance of the inputs to the underlying mechanism. We illustrate this new conceptualization through a three-dimensional behaviour-space which highlights the apparently
different conceptualizations of behaviour attributed to humans, animals and
plants, showing that they, in fact, all partake of a unified, malleable
understanding of a single concept.
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