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Are Homologies (Selected Effect or Causal Role) Function Free?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Alex Rosenberg  and
Karen Neander
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Abstract

This article argues that at least very many judgments of homology rest on prior attributions of selected-effect (SE) function, and that many of the “parts” of biological systems that are rightly classified as homologous are constituted by (are so classified in virtue of) their consequence etiologies. We claim that SE functions are often used in the prior identification of the parts deemed to be homologous and are often used to differentiate more restricted homologous kinds within less restricted ones. In doing so, we discuss recent criticism of this view that has been offered (especially that offered by Paul Griffiths).

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 307 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

For comments on previous drafts we are grateful to Robert Brandon, Daniel McShea, Paul Griffiths, Jason Clark, participants in the Triangle philosophy of biology seminar—and most of all, to Michael Dickson.

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