Function and Design Revisited

Authors

David J. Buller

Document Type

Book Chapter

Abstract

Several analyses of biological function — for example, those of Williams, Millikan, and Kitcher — identify an item's function with what natural selection designed it to do. Allen and Bekoff have disagreed, claiming that natural design is a special case of biological function. I argue that Allen and Bekoff's account of natural design is unduly restrictive and that it fails to mark a principled distinction between function and design. I distinguish two approaches to the phenomenon of natural design — the "trait-centered" approach of Allen and Bekoff and the "organism-centered" approach — and defend the latter. When design is understood according to the organism-centered approach, biological function and design are co-instantiated phenomena.

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Comments

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/functions-9780199255818?q=andre%20ariew&lang=en&cc=us

Recommended Citation

David J. Buller. “Function and Design Revisited.” In Functions: New Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology and Biology (pp. 222-243). Eds. André Ariew, Robert Cummins, and Mark Perlman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Original Citation

David J. Buller. “Function and Design Revisited.” In Functions: New Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology and Biology (pp. 222-243). Eds. André Ariew, Robert Cummins, and Mark Perlman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Department

Department of Philosophy

Legacy Department

Department of Philosophy

Language

eng

Publisher

Oxford University Press