The Metaphysics of Development and Evolution: From Thing Ontology to Process Ontology

Abstract

This article discusses the metaphysics of development and evolution. Which most fundamental assumptions about the structure of reality underlie our thinking about development and evolution? Against the backdrop of major lines of thought in the history of western metaphysics, I argue that the characteristic disregard of development in neo-Darwinist evolutionary theory is due to an underlying view of reality in terms of things (thing ontology) and that putting development back into evolution, as intended by the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, requires understanding reality in terms of processes (process ontology). I show how a metaphysical paradigm shift from thing ontology to process ontology, and a philosophy of biology informed accordingly by process ontology (process biology), can advance our understanding of development and evolution.