The Function Debate in Philosophy
Top Cited Papers
- 1 June 2005
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Springer Nature in Acta Biotheoretica
- Vol. 53 (2) , 123-151
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-005-5353-6
Abstract
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.Keywords
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