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Functional Properties and Convergence in Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mark B. Couch
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Abstract

Evolutionary convergence is often appealed to in support of claims about multiple realization. The idea is that convergence shows that the same function can be realized by different kinds of structures. I argue here that the nature of convergence is more complicated than it might appear at first look. Broad claims about convergence are made by biologists during general discussions of the mechanisms of evolution. In their specialized work, though, biologists are often more limited in the claims they make. I will examine a standard example to show how claims about convergence can be oversimplified.

Type
Topics in Evolutionary Theory
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 72 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2004 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2005 , pp. 1041 - 1051
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

For help with this paper, I would like to thank Colin Allen, Bernard Berofsky, John Bickle, Carl Gillett, Brian Keeley, and Philip Kitcher.

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