About

Sahotra Sarkar is a Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. His academic focus includes the philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, environmental ethics, and Kantian philosophy. Sarkar's work involves exploring foundational issues in biological sciences and scientific methodology, as well as addressing ethical considerations related to environmental issues. His research contributes to understanding the philosophical underpinnings of scientific practices and the ethical implications of environmental decision-making.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Geography
• Computer Science
• Medicine
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Ecology
• Economics
• Environmental planning
• Demography
• Virology
• Environmental health
• Immunology
• Environmental resource management
• Business
• Engineering
• Biology

Selected publications

• Agency in the Evolutionary Transition to Multicellularity

  The Quarterly Review of Biology · 2025-05-27 · 8 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  This review explores agency, behavior intrinsic to an organism and initiated by it, as it relates to the development of multicellular organisms and its evolution. We ask how agential behaviors contribute to and change concomitantly with evolutionary transitions from unicellularity to multicellularity, including evolution of animals from their closest unicellular antecedents. We consider the relation of organizational properties to the agency of multicellular organisms and conclude, surprisingly, that it is not as strict as it is for individual cells. The main reasons are previously unacknowledged morphogenetic inherencies of multicellular matter and the capacity of development to amplify and partition functionalities of constituent cells. These modalities generate novel phenotypic enablements that enhance the scope of agential behavior. We discuss experimental approaches to distinguish between agency and evolved, stereotypical behaviors of organisms, including purposeful actions. We argue that evolved complexities of animal development make it unsuitable for exploring single-cell-to-multicellular transformations in agency experimentally. We focus our attention instead on agency in the life cycles of social bacteria and amoebae, and in the transitions between multicellular and unicellular states in cancer. Finally, we discuss mathematical representations of incompletely specified dynamical systems and how they may be used to characterize biological autonomy and agency.

  PublisherDOI

• D’Arcy Thompson’s Conceptual Legacy

  Biological Theory · 2025-03-26

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Agency in the Evolutionary Transition to Multicellularity

  2024-03-03 · 4 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  This review discusses concepts of how agency, defined here as organism-initiated behavior (both species-characteristic and individually idiosyncratic), was aligned at the cellular and integrated in the multicellular levels during evolution. We consider agency in relation to the autonomy and purposiveness of cells and multicellular organisms. While the agency of cells in extant multicellular forms (and inferred in single-cell antecedents) is assumed in our analysis, we do not speculate on its origins. We attempt to discern the role of agency in the generation of form and function in social bacteria and amoebae, and we speculate on how these phenomena may relate to the emergence of phenotypically complex organisms. For the latter question, we explore the processes leading to morphological and functional enablements in metazoans and how these might change the character of organismal agency during evolution. We also consider how transitions between multicellular agency and unicellular agency (and back again) may characterize and drive the formation of cancers. We relate this problem to the philosophical discourse on dispositional causality and discuss experimental approaches to identifying genuine agency against a background of physically mediated directionality and evolved program-like behaviors of organisms. Lastly, we discuss the possible uses of mathematical representations of incompletely specified dynamical systems in the characterization of autonomy and agency.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Musicians without Musical Ability

  2024-10-30

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Multi‐criteria systematic conservation planning for terrestrial vertebrates in a biodiversity hotspot in Mexico

  Conservation Science and Practice · 2024-02-26

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Anthropogenic loss of biodiversity continues to increase worldwide, and existing conservation area networks (CANs) are inadequate for its adequate representation and persistence. To identify a set of new nominal conservation areas in Oaxaca, a Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot in Mexico, for terrestrial vertebrate species, we used a multi‐criteria systematic conservation planning approach. Besides minimizing the area incorporated into the nominal CAN, we incorporated 25 socioeconomic variables using multi‐attribute value theory. We constructed a portfolio of nominal CAN solutions for four different scenarios all of which satisfied a 10% representation target for the modeled suitable habitat of each vertebrate species: (1) existing protected area‐based (PA) solution; (2) voluntary conservation area‐based (VCA) solution; (3) PA‐VCA solution; and (4) R‐C solution (rarity‐complementary algorithm). The PA‐VCA and PA solutions were the most expensive in terms of area that had to be included in the nominal CANs (13,352 km 2 and 12,587 km 2 , respectively). In all our multi‐criteria analyses, highest costs were associated with maximizing the number of airports, amount of tourism, and length of available highways in a nominal CAN. We have thus established a portfolio of multi‐criteria solutions to the problem of creating an adequate CAN for the representation of terrestrial vertebrate species.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Functional Multi-omics Profiling of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Lungs Shed a New Light on Disease Mechanisms

  2024-04-30

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Logic by Convention

  2024-10-30

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• From Urban Clusters to Megaregions: Mapping Australia's Evolving Urban Regions

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-08-17

  preprintOpen access

  This study employs percolation theory to investigate the hierarchical organisation of Australian urban centres through the connectivity of their road networks. The analysis demonstrates how discrete urban clusters have developed into integrated regional entities, delineating the pivotal distance thresholds that regulate these urban transitions. The study reveals the interconnections between disparate urban clusters, shaped by their functional differentiation and historical development. Furthermore, the study identifies a dichotomy of urban agglomeration forces and a persistent spatial disconnection between Australia's wider urban landscape. This highlights the interplay between urban densification and peripheral growth. It suggests the need for new thinking on potential integrated governance structures that bridge urban development with broader social and economic policies across regional and national scales. Additionally, the study emphasises the growing importance of national coordination in Australian urban development planning to ensure regional consistency, equity, and productivity.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• What Is, and What Good Is, Fitness? Reflections on Takacs and Bourrat

  Biological Theory · 2024-02-26

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Radical Empiricism

  2024-10-30

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HG000912

  NIH · $335k · 1995

• From Ecological Diversity to Biodiversity: Conceptual Changes in the Emergence of Conservation Biology

  NSF · $142k · 2007–2010

Frequent coauthors

• Víctor Sánchez‐Cordero

  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

  23 shared

• Trevon Fuller

  18 shared

• Lauren Gardner

  Johns Hopkins University

  17 shared

• John Stachel

  Boston University

  15 shared

• Alexander S. Moffett

  Northeastern University

  12 shared

• Chris Margules

  James Cook University

  12 shared

• Justin Garson

  Hunter College

  11 shared

• Robert S. Cohen

  University of Memphis

  9 shared