The foundations of biology have been a topic of debate for the past few decades. The traditional perspective of the Modern Synthesis, which portrays organisms as passive entities with a limited explanatory role in evolutionary theory, is giving way to a new paradigm where organisms are recognized as active agents, actively shaping their own phenotypic traits for adaptive goals. Within this context, this article raises the question of whether contemporary biological theory is undergoing a cognitive revolution. This inquiry can be approached in two ways: from a theoretical standpoint, exploring the centrality of the cognitive sciences in current theoretical biology; and from a historical perspective, examining the resemblance between the current state of theoretical biology and the Cognitive Revolution of the mid-twentieth century. Both inquiries yield affirmative answers, though important nuances will be emphasized. The cognitive sciences’ explanatory framework is employed to elucidate the agentic characteristics of organisms, establishing a clear parallelism between the Cognitive Revolution and the present state of theoretical biology.

过去几十年来，生物学的基础一直是争论的话题。现代综合论的传统观点将生物体描绘为在进化论中具有有限解释作用的被动实体，这种观点正在让位于一种新的范式，其中生物体被认为是主动主体，为了适应目标而积极塑造自己的表型特征。在此背景下，本文提出了当代生物学理论是否正在经历一场认知革命的问题。这一探究可以通过两种方式进行：从理论角度，探索认知科学在当前理论生物学中的中心地位；并从历史的角度审视理论生物学的现状与二十世纪中叶的认知革命之间的相似性。这两项询问都得到了肯定的答案，但将强调重要的细微差别。认知科学的解释框架被用来阐明生物体的代理特征，在认知革命和理论生物学的现状之间建立了明确的平行关系。