CfA: Workshop "Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges"

Frameworks from animal behavior studies are increasingly being borrowed and adapted to interpret a wealth of empirical findings in creatures outside the animal kingdom, such as plants, fungi, and bacteria. These findings include goal-oriented dynamics, adjustments in growth and development, and signaling. Collectively, they have complicated our understanding of what constitutes organismal activity and stretched the concept of behavior, prompting a reevaluation of how behavior should be understood and how it can be distinguished from related activities, such as growth and development. 

Even though cross-kingdom comparisons are increasingly employed to frame and explain the activities of non-animal organisms, the issue of whether these comparisons are epistemologically and methodologically warranted remains underexplored.

This workshop will explore the theoretical and methodological foundations of comparative research on behavior across the tree of life and will spell out some of its challenges. It will convene philosophers and scientists working on different groups of (putatively) behaving organisms to assess the status of what could be called ‘comparative behavioral biology.’ This comparative approach aims to build systematic knowledge of the diversity and evolution of behavior across kingdoms and to complement other branches of comparative biology with much-needed clarifications.

The themes and topics that we will cover include (but are not restricted to):

• Can the theoretical and methodological frameworks already developed in animal behavior studies be extrapolated to investigate behavior in non-metazoan organisms?
• What concepts and frameworks are useful for laying the groundwork of a genuine inter-kingdom comparative behavioral biology?
• Through which criteria can we individuate behaviors and behavioral characters? How projectible are trait individuation criteria across taxonomic groups? 
• What experimental set-ups and methodological considerations do we need to take into account for sound inter-kingdom comparisons? Do we need one-size-fits-all standards, or can we have different standards depending on the particularities of certain taxa?
• How is comparative behavioral biology situated with respect to research in comparative cognition and comparative psychology? What are some of its overlaps and points of divergence?

We welcome contributions from theoretical and empirical researchers—philosophers and scientists alike—interested in fostering interdisciplinary dialogues on comparative behavioral biology and its theoretical and methodological foundations. 

We invite submissions of abstracts (max. 500 words, excluding references). Abstracts must include personal information (affiliation, contact info). Please send the abstracts to Gianmaria Dani ([email protected]) and Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda ([email protected]). Deadline: July 14th 2025. Notifications of acceptance: July 18th 2025.