Abstract
The paper presents evidence in bacteria for the utility of Godfrey-Smith’s environmental complexity thesis (ECT), using certain kinds of signal transduction systems as proxies for cognitive/behavioral complexity. Microbiologists already accept that the number of signal transduction proteins in a bacterial genome indicates the level of ecological complexity to which the organism is subject: the more signalling proteins, the greater the complexity. Sheer numbers are not always a reliable indicator of behavioral complexity, however. The paper proposes a new, ECT-based procedure for identifying, from genomic sequence and signalling repertoire, novel bacterial candidates likely to exhibit behavioral complexity in response to a complex ecological niche.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 443-465 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Biology and Philosophy |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 2017 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2017 |
Keywords
- Bacteria
- Cognition
- Environmental complexity thesis
- Evolution
- Sociality