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We find it impossible to speak for long about living things without
using terminology that is teleologial, evaluative, or otherwise
normative in character. This book argues that the reason why we
find such language indispensable is because all organisms literally
are agents, in a strong normative sense of that term. In other
words, living things are physical systems that actively strive to
perpetuate themselves in existence, by acting on the world.
Normative agency is an inherent, objectively real property of life
as such. Thus, organisms should not be viewed as machines, but
rather as constituting a distinct natural kind, with normative
agency as their essential property. This means that normative
agency constitutes a scientific problem requiring investigation. It
is further argued that the conceptual toolkit of neo-Darwinism is
inadequate to this task. Finally, various recent ideas are
examined, drawn from various scientific disciplines (including
nonequilibrium thermodynamics, nonlinear dynamics, and quantum
field theory), which take a more direct approach to the
investigation of the phenomenon of normative agency.
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