Towards a unified framework for biological agency: "Individual Playful Memory"

While the long-dominant genocentric framework minimised the role played by organisms, newer approaches emphasise their ‘agency’. Yet, definitions of agency vary across and within disciplines, and this equivocality hinders establishing a cohesive theoretical framework. This paper reviews the literature on agency from philosophy, evolutionary theory, developmental biology, and behavioural ecology, and argues that agency rests on three core capacities: Individuality, Playful flexibility, and Memory (IPM). Differences in their relative expression generate qualitatively distinct forms of agency: autonomous organisation, goal-directed choice, and inventiveness. The IPM model clarifies how these forms relate, offering a unified and operational framework for biological agency.