The Function Debate in Philosophy

This paper reviews the debate on the notion of biological function and on functional explanation as this takes place in philosophy. It describes the different perspectives, issues, intuitions, theories and arguments that have emerged. The author shows that the debate has been too heavily influenced by the concerns of a naturalistic philosophy of mind and argues that in order to improve our understanding of biology the attention should be shifted from the study of intuitions to the study of the actual practice of biological inquiry.

[1]  K. Schaffner.  Discovery and Explanation in Biology and Medicine , 1994 .

[2]  Sandra D. Mitchell.  Function, fitness and disposition , 1995 .

[3]  Ernest Nagel,et al.  Goal-Directed Processes in Biology , 1977 .

[4]  D. Dennett.  Darwin's Dangerous Idea , 1995 .

[5]  Ernest Nagel,et al.  The Structure of Science , 1962 .

[6]  Michael Ruse,et al.  Functional Statements in Biology , 1971, Philosophy of Science.

[7]  A. Wouters,et al.  Four notions of biological function , 2003 .

[8]  Karen Neander,et al.  Functions as Selected Effects: The Conceptual Analyst's Defense , 1991, Philosophy of Science.

[9]  Arno Wouters.  Explanation without a cause , 1999 .

[10]  Ruth Garrett Millikan,et al.  White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice. , 1984 .

[11]  Robert N. Brandon,et al.  Adaptation and Environment , 1995 .

[12]  Peter H. Schwartz.  Proper Function and Recent Selection , 1999, Philosophy of Science.

[13]  G. Lauder,et al.  Function without purpose , 1994 .

[14]  D. Papineau,et al.  Reality and Representation. , 1992 .

[15]  Michael J. Lannoo,et al.  Why do electric fishes swim backwards? An hypothesis based on gymnotiform foraging behavior interpreted through sensory constraints , 1993, Environmental Biology of Fishes.

[16]  E. Mayr.  This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World , 1997 .

[17]  Larry Wright,et al.  Teleological explanations: An etiological analysis of goals and functions , 1976 .

[18]  Berent Enç,et al.  Function Attributions and Functional Explanations , 1979, Philosophy of Science.

[19]  Dispositions or Etiologies? A Comment On Bigelow and Pargetter , 1993 .

[20]  Michael Ruse,et al.  The philosophy of biology , 1973 .

[21]  R. Cummins.  The nature of psychological explanation , 1983 .

[22]  Christopher Boorse,et al.  On the Distinction between Disease and Illness , 1999 .

[23]  Michael T. Ghiselin,et al.  Metaphysics and the origin of species , 1997 .

[24]  David J. Buller.  Etiological Theories of Function: A Geographical Survey , 1998 .

[25]  Arno Wouters.  Functional Explanation in Biology , 2005 .

[26]  E. Sober,et al.  Philosophy of Biology , 1993 .

[27]  D. Dennett.  Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life , 1995 .

[28]  Lowell A. Nissen.  Four ways of eliminating mind from teleology , 1993 .

[29]  R. Munson.  Biological Adaptation: A Reply , 1972, Philosophia Scientiæ.

[30]  E. Mayr.  Proximate and ultimate causations , 1993 .

[31]  Sandra D. Mitchell.  The causal background of functional explanation , 1989 .

[32]  R. Millikan.  In Defense of Proper Functions , 1989, Philosophy of Science.

[33]  J. Lennox.  Darwin was a teleologist , 1993 .

[34]  P. Godfrey‐Smith.  A Modern History Theory of Functions , 1994 .

[35]  W. H. Kane.  On Cause and Effect in Biology. , 1962, Science.

[36]  R. Kirk.  Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories , 1985 .

[37]  S. Gould,et al.  Exaptation—a Missing Term in the Science of Form , 1982, Paleobiology.

[38]  Ruth Garrett Millikan,et al.  Thoughts Without Laws; Cognitive Science with Content , 1986 .

[39]  W. Bock.  Functional and Evolutionary Explanations in Morphology , 1999 .

[40]  André Ariew,et al.  A Taxonomy of Functions , 1996, Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

[41]  Philip Kitcher,et al.  Function and Design , 1993 .

[42]  Kenneth K. Baublys.  Comments on Some Recent Analyses of Functional Statements in Biology , 1975, Philosophy of Science.

[43]  Paul Sheldon Davies,et al.  Norms of Nature: Naturalism and the Nature of Functions , 2001 .

[44]  W. Salmon.  Four decades of scientific explanation , 1989 .

[45]  Peter Godfrey-Smith,et al.  Functions: Consensus without unity , 1993 .

[46]  J. Endler.  Natural selection in the wild , 1987 .

[47]  E. Prior.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ETIOLOGICAL ACCOUNTS OF BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION , 1985 .

[48]  Paul Sheldon Davies,et al.  The Nature of Natural Norms: Why Selected Functions are Systemic Capacity Functions , 2000 .

[49]  W. Bock,et al.  ADAPTATION AND THE FORM–FUNCTION COMPLEX , 1965 .

[50]  R. Cummins,et al.  Functions: New Essays in the Philosophy of Psychology and Biology , 2002 .

[51]  Fred Adams,et al.  A Goal-State Theory of Function Attributions , 1979, Canadian Journal of Philosophy.

[52]  M. Bunge,et al.  Foundations of Biophilosophy , 1997, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[53]  T. Kuipers.  Structures in Science , 2001 .

[54]  Paul Griffiths,et al.  Functional Analysis and Proper Functions , 1993, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[55]  William C. Wimsatt,et al.  Teleology and the logical structure of function statements , 1972 .

[56]  F. Adams,et al.  Functions and Goal Directedness , 1992, Philosophy of Science.

[57]  Lowell A. Nissen.  Teleological language in the life sciences , 1997 .

[58]  Christopher Boorse.  Wright on Functions , 1976 .

[59]  David J. Buller.  Function, selection, and design , 1999 .

[60]  C. Hempel,et al.  Studies in the Logic of Explanation , 1948, Philosophy of Science.

[61]  E. Mayr.  Cause and Effect in Biology: Kinds of causes, predictability, and teleology are viewed by a practicing biologist , 1961 .

[62]  Timothy Lenoir,et al.  The strategy of life , 1982 .

[63]  B. Horan.  Functional explanations in sociobiology , 1989 .

[64]  Theo A. F. Kuipers,et al.  An erotetic approach to explanation by specification , 1994 .

[65]  J. Woodward,et al.  Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World , 1988 .

[66]  Hugh Lehman.  Functional Explanation in Biology , 1965, Philosophy of Science.

[67]  D. Walsh.  Fitness and Function , 1996, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[68]  C. Unsworth.  The Concept of Function , 1993 .

[69]  Karen Neander,et al.  The teleological notion of ‘function’ , 1991 .

[70]  John V. Canfield,et al.  TELEOLOGICAL EXPLANATION IN BIOLOGY*† , 1964, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[71]  M. Bedau.  Where's the Good in Teleology? , 1992 .

[72]  A. Wouters,et al.  The Functional Perspective of Organismal Biology , 2005 .

[73]  George C. Williams,et al.  Adaptation and Natural Selection , 2018 .

[74]  C. Craver.  Role Functions, Mechanisms, and Hierarchy , 2001, Philosophy of Science.

[75]  C. Allen,et al.  Nature's Purposes: Analyses of Function and Design in Biology , 1998 .