Evaluation is the process by which conditions, states, actions, or possibilities are distinguished according to their significance relative to some criterion, norm, goal, or standard.
The term is used across many fields. Scientific evaluation assesses evidence relative to explanatory standards. Moral evaluation assesses actions relative to ethical standards. Economic evaluation assesses outcomes relative to preferences or objectives. Cognitive evaluation concerns the assessment of information, situations, or possibilities.
Although these forms differ greatly, they share a common structure: some distinction is made between alternatives according to what matters within a particular context.
Evaluation therefore concerns significance. It identifies what is relevant, important, beneficial, harmful, preferable, or worthy of attention relative to a given frame of reference.
Evaluation in APS
APS treats evaluation as a broad concept that applies across many domains. However, the framework is primarily concerned with one particular form:
Biological evaluation.
Living systems must continuously distinguish conditions according to their significance for viability, functional integrity, and adaptive persistence. Through this process, organisms identify conditions that support continued functioning, conditions that threaten it, and conditions that are irrelevant.
APS refers to this process as biological evaluation.
Biological evaluation is therefore a specific form of evaluation grounded in living organization. It provides the foundation from which biological significance, meaning, cognition, and increasingly complex forms of agency emerge.
Evaluation and Significance
All forms of evaluation involve significance.
Evaluation distinguishes among alternatives according to what matters relative to a particular criterion or standard. The criterion may be biological, cognitive, social, moral, economic, scientific, or cultural, but the underlying process remains the same: evaluation differentiates conditions according to significance.
From an APS perspective, significance is what evaluation generates.
Biological evaluation generates biological significance. Reflective evaluation generates values and moral significance. Scientific evaluation generates evidential significance. Different forms of evaluation therefore operate within different domains while sharing a common logical structure.
Evaluation and Biological Evaluation
APS distinguishes between evaluation in general and biological evaluation in particular.
Evaluation is the broader category.
Biological evaluation is the process through which living systems distinguish conditions according to their significance for viability, functional integrity, and adaptive persistence.
Biological evaluation occupies a central position within APS because it explains how significance emerges within living systems. Through biological evaluation, agency acquires direction, meaning becomes possible, cognition develops, and increasingly sophisticated forms of significance emerge.
For this reason, readers seeking the APS theory of significance, meaning, cognition, mind, selfhood, values, and morality should consult Biological Evaluation, which serves as the primary integrative concept within this part of the framework.
APS Summary
Evaluation is the process of distinguishing conditions according to their significance relative to some criterion, norm, goal, or standard. In APS, the most fundamental form is biological evaluation, through which living systems distinguish conditions according to their significance for viability, functional integrity, and adaptive persistence.