Dr Pamela Lyon

• Biography/ Background

  Pamela Lyon is a natural philosopher in the biology and evolution of cognition who uses the primary scientific literature across a wide variety of disciplines to answer fundamental questions concerning the origin and nature of mind: what it is, what it does and how it works.

  Based on the biogenic approach to cognition she developed as a mature-age PhD student, Dr Lyon co-founded the emerging field of basal cognition. The aim of basal cognition is to connect the dots and identify genuine discontinuities in the evolution of cognitive capacities and mechanisms, from organisms occupying evolutionary branches prior to and at the threshold of nervous systems to animals with nervous systems, including humans.

  Dr Lyon is an independent scholar affiliated with the University of Adelaide Department of Philosophy in the School of Humanities. She has been invited to give talks at seminars, workshops and conferences in the United States (UCLA, Harvard, Indiana, Minnesota, Santa Fe), South America (Congreso del Futuro/Santiago),Europe (Barcelona, Bonn, Bremen, Bochum, Frankfurt, Jena, Lund, Warsaw), the UK (Exeter, Oxford), and Australia (Sydney, Wollongong), including keynote addresses to the International Conference for Artificial Life (2023) and the Spanish Society for Comparative Psychology (2024). 

• Qualifications

  PhD (2006)The Australian National University (Asian Studies; Crawford Prize)

  Graduate Diploma (1997) The Flinders University of South Australia (Philosophy; high distinction)

  Master of Science (1976) Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

  Bachelor of Arts (1975) University of California at Berkeley (Political Science; Summa cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa)

• Research Interests

  Biology of cognition; cognitive biology; basal cognition; evolutionary theory, with a special interest in the co-evolution of cognition and physiological stress responses; origins of life; origins of nervous systems; psychological dynamics of biological self-regulation; Buddhist philosophy.

• Publications

  Peer-reviewed articles

  P. Lyon (2025) "Fundamental principles of cognitive biology 2.0," Biological Theory (02 May) Part of a collection: Ladislav Kovàč and the origins of cognitive biology. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13752-025-00497-5

  P. Lyon and K. Cheng (2023) "Basal cognition: shifting the center of gravity (again)," Animal Cognition 6: 1743-1750.

  P. Lyon and F. Kuchling (2021) "Valuing what happens: a biogenic approach to valence," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 376(1820):20190752.

  P. Lyon, F. Keijzer, D Arendt, M. Levin (2021) "Reframing cognition: getting down to biological basics," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 376(1820):20190750.

  M. Levin, F. Keijzer, P. Lyon, D Arendt (2021) "Uncovering cognitive similarities and differences, conservation and innovation," Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B376(1821):20200458

  P. Lyon (2020) "Of what is minimal cognition the half-baked version?" Adaptive Behavior 6: 407-424.

  P. Lyon (2017) "Environmental complexity, adaptability and bacterial cognition: Godfrey-Smith's hypothesis under the microscope," Biology & Philosophy 32: 443-465.

  P. Lyon (2015) "The cognitive cell: bacterial ehavior reconsidered," Frontiers in Microbiology 6:264.

  F. Keijzer, M. Van Duijn, P. Lyon (2013) "What nervous systems do: early evolution, input-output, and the skin brain thesis," Adaptive Behavior 21: 67-85.

  P. Lyon, M. Cohen and J. Quintner (2011) "An evolutionary stress response hypothesis for chronic widespread pain (fibromyalgia syndrome)," Pain Medicine 12:1167-1178.

  P. Lyon (2007) "From quorum to cooperation: Lessons from bacterial sociality", Studies in History and Philosophy of Science: Series C, Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38(4):820-833.

  P. Lyon (2006) "The biogenic approach to cognition", Cognitive Processing 7(1):11-29.

  P. Lyon (2004) "Autopoiesis and knowing: Reflections on Maturana's biogenic explanation of cognition", Cybernetics & Human Knowing 11(4):21-46.

  Book chapters

  P. Lyon (2013) "Stress in mind: A stress response hypothesis of cognitive evolution," in L. Caporael, W. Wimsatt and J. Griesemer (eds) Scaffolding Evolution, Development, Cognition and Culture, MIT Press: 171-190.

  P. Lyon (2011) "Extracting norms from nature: A biogenic approach to ethics," in P. Burdon (ed.) Exploring Wild Law: The Philosophy of Earth Jurisprudence, Wakefield Press: 137-145.

  P. Lyon (2011) "To be or not to be: Where is self-preservation in evolutionary theory?" in B. Calcott and K. Sterelny (eds) The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited, MIT Press: 105-125.

  P. Lyon and F. Keijzer (2007) "The human stain: Why cognitivism can't tell us what cognition is and what it does," in B. Wallace (ed.) The Mind, the World, and the Body: Psychology After Cognitivism, Imprint Academic:132-165.

  Other

  P. Lyon (2021) "On the origin of minds," Aeon Essays (October). https://aeon.co/essays/the-study-of-the-mind-needs-a-copernican-shift-in-perspective

• Professional Associations

  There is nothing to report here, but the software won't let me close this without adding something.

• Community Engagement

  The Not Broken Project, University of Adelaide (2025).

  Science columnist (weird wonderful world), The Adelaide Review (2006-2008). Finalist for Eureka Prize. 

  Lecturer (2008), University of the Third Age (for retirees), Buddha House Centre for Advanced Buddhist Studies, Thekchen Shedrup Choeling (Tibetan Buddhist Institute).

Entry last updated: Monday, 4 Aug 2025