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  1.  15
    On the Origin of Autonomy: A New Look at the Major Transitions in Evolution.Bernd Rosslenbroich - 2014 - Cham: Imprint: Springer.
    This volume describes features of biological autonomy and integrates them into the recent discussion of factors in evolution. In recent years ideas about major transitions in evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. They include questions about the origin of evolutionary innovation, their genetic and epigenetic background, the role of the phenotype, and of changes in ontogenetic pathways. In the present book, it is argued that it is likewise necessary to question the properties of these innovations and what was qualitatively generated (...)
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  2. The theory of increasing autonomy in evolution: a proposal for understanding macroevolutionary innovations.Bernd Rosslenbroich - 2009 - Biology and Philosophy 24 (5):623-644.
    Attempts to explain the origin of macroevolutionary innovations have been only partially successful. Here it is proposed that the patterns of major evolutionary transitions have to be understood first, before it is possible to further analyse the forces behind the process. The hypothesis is that major evolutionary innovations are characterized by an increase in organismal autonomy, in the sense of emancipation from the environment. After a brief overview of the literature on this subject, increasing autonomy is defined as the evolutionary (...)
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  3.  81
    The notion of progress in evolutionary biology – the unresolved problem and an empirical suggestion.Bernd Rosslenbroich - 2006 - Biology and Philosophy 21 (1):41-70.
    Modern biology is ambivalent about the notion of evolutionary progress. Although most evolutionists imply in their writings that they still understand large-scale macroevolution as a somewhat progressive process, the use of the term “progress” is increasingly criticized and avoided. The paper shows that this ambivalence has a long history and results mainly from three problems: (1) The term “progress” carries historical, theoretical and social implications which are not congruent with modern knowledge of the course of evolution; (2) An incongruence exists (...)
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  4.  19
    Agency as an Inherent Property of Living Organisms.Bernd Rosslenbroich, Susanna Kümmell & Benjamin Bembé - forthcoming - Biological Theory:1-13.
    A central characteristic of living organisms is their agency, that is, their intrinsic activity, both in terms of their basic life processes and their behavior in the environment. This aspect is currently a subject of debate and this article provides an overview of some of the relevant publications on this topic. We develop the argument that agency is immanent in living organisms. There is no life without agency. Even the basic life processes are an intrinsic activity, which we call the (...)
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  5.  45
    Alvaro Moreno and Matteo Mossio: Biological autonomy: a philosophical and theoretical enquiry: Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands 2015, 222 pp, ISBN 978-94-017-9836-5.Bernd Rosslenbroich - 2016 - Biology and Philosophy 31 (4):591-601.
    The essay review summarizes the intention as well as some of the major topics from the book of A. Moreno and M. Mossio and discusses them against the background of recent considerations on the general understanding of organisms. The authors see themselves in the organicist tradition in biology and propose that a new understanding of living beings can be developed around the notion of organismic autonomy, which enables biological systems to maintain themselves in an environment through directed behavior.
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  6.  39
    Properties of Life: Toward a Coherent Understanding of the Organism.Bernd Rosslenbroich - 2016 - Acta Biotheoretica 64 (3):277-307.
    The question of specific properties of life compared to nonliving things accompanied biology throughout its history. At times this question generated major controversies with largely diverging opinions. Basically, mechanistic thinkers, who tried to understand organismic functions in terms of nonliving machines, were opposed by those who tried to describe specific properties or even special forces being active within living entities. As this question included the human body, these controversies always have been of special relevance to our self-image and also touched (...)
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