Functions: selection and mechanisms
This volume handles in various perspectives the concept of function and the nature of functional explanations, topics much discussed since two major and conflicting accounts have been raised by Larry Wright and Robert Cummins’s papers in the 1970s. Here, both Wright’s ‘etiological theory of functio...
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| Language: | English |
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Dordrecht :
Springer Netherlands : Imprint: Springer,
2013.
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| Edition: | 1st ed. 2013. |
| Series: | Synthese Library, Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science,
363 |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5304-4 |
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Section I. Biological functions and functional explanations: genes, cells, organisms and ecosystems
- Part 1.A. Functions, organization and development in life sciences
- Chapter 1. William C. Wimsatt. Evolution and the Stability of Functional Architectures
- Chapter 2. Denis M. Walsh. Teleological Emergence: The Autonomy of Evo-Devo
- Chapter 3. Jean Gayon. Does oxygen have a function, or: where should the regress of biological functions stop?
- Part 1.B. Functional pluralism for biologists? Chapter 4. Frédéric Bouchard. How ecosystem evolution strengthens the case for functional pluralism
- Chapter 5. Robert N. Brandon. A general case for functional pluralism
- Chapter 6. Philippe Huneman. Weak realism in the etiological theory of functions
- Section 2. Section II. Psychology, philosophy of mind and technology: Functions in a man’s world
- Part 2.A. 2A. Metaphysics, function and philosophy of mind
- Chapter 7. Carl Craver. Functions and Mechanisms in Contemporary Neuroscience
- Chapter 8. Carl Gillett. Understanding the sciences through the fog of ‘functionalism(s).’
- 2.B. Philosophy of technology , design and functions
- Chapter 9. Françoise Longy. Artifacts and Organisms: A Case for a New Etiological Theory of Functions
- Chapter 10. Pieter Vermaas and Wybo Houkes. Functions as Epistemic Highlighters: An Engineering Account of Technical, Biological and Other Functions
- Epilogue
- Larry Wright. Revising teleological explanations: reflections three decades on. .