Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T15:03:04.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adaptational Functional Ascriptions in Evolutionary Biology: A Critique of Schaffner's Views

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

William A. Rottschaefer
William A. Rottschaefer*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Lewis and Clark College
*
†Send reprint requests to the author, Department of Philosophy, Lewis and Clark College, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR 97219-7899.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Kenneth Schaffner has argued that evolutionary theory, strictly understood, cannot support the functional ascriptions used in adaptational functional explanations. Although the causal ascription clause in these ascriptions is supported, the goal-ascription clause cannot be, since it imports anthropocentric features deriving from a vulgar understanding of evolutionary theory. I argue that an etiological interpretation of selectional explanations sanctions both the causal and goal-ascription clauses of functional ascriptions and provides a way to understand teleological explanation within evolutionary biology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , December 1997 , pp. 698 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brandon, R. (1990), Adaptation and Environment. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cummins, R. (1975), “Functional Analysis”, Journal of Philosophy 72: 741–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghiselin, M. (1994), “Darwin's Language May Seem Teleological, but His Thinking is Another Matter”, Biology and Philosophy 9: 489–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. (1994) “A Modern History Theory of Functions”, Noûs 28: 344–362.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1993), “Function and Design”, in P. French, T. Uehberg, Jr., and H. Wettstein (eds.), Midwest Studies in Philosophy, Vol. XVIII: Philosophy of Science. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 379–397.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1987), “Why not the Best”, in Dupre, J. (ed.), The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 77–102.Google Scholar
Lennox, J. (1992), “Teleology”, in Keller, E. and Lloyd, E. (eds.), Keywords in Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 324–333.Google Scholar
Lennox, J. (1994), “Teleology by Another Name: A Reply to Ghiselen”, Biology and Philosophy 9: 493–496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackie, J. (1974), The Cement of the Universe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, G. (1903), Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Millikan, R. (1989) “An Ambiguity in the Notion of ‘Function’”, Biology and Philosophy 4: 172–176.Google Scholar
Mitchell, S. (1989), “The Causal Background of Functional Explanation”, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 3: 213–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orzack, S. and Sober, E. (1994), “Optimality Models and the Test of Adaptationism”, American Naturalist 143: 361–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffner, K. (1993), Discovery and Explanation in Biology and Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wright, L. (1973), “Functions”, Philosophical Review 82: 139–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, L. (1976), Teleological Explanations. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar