Functions

Produktbeschreibung

In explaining aspects of the natural world, including the aspects of mind, scientists have frequently used the concept of function. But what are functions? Here, 15 leading scholars of philosophy of psychology and philosophy of biology present new essays on functions. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

* Introduction


* History of Teleology and functional explanation: from Socrates to Darwin and
Beyond


* 2: Michael Ruse: Evolutionary Biology and Teleological Thinking


* Analysis: Functional Explanations Today


* 4: Ruth Millikan: Biofunctions: Two Paradigms


* 5: Valerie Gray Hardcastle: On the Normativity of Functions


* 6: Robert Cummins: Neo-Teleology


* 7: William Wimsatt: Functional Organization, Analogy, and Inference


* 8: David J. Buller: Function and Design Revisited


* 9: Peter H. Schwartz: The Continuing Usefulness Account of Proper Function


* Teleosemantics


* 11: Berent Enc: Indeterminacy of Function Attributions


* 12: D. M. Walsh: Brentano's Chestnuts


* Related Issues


* 14: Colin Allen: Real Traits, Real Functions?


* 15: Karen Neander: Types of Traits: Function, structure, and homology in the
classification of traits


* Biographies, Index 

Autoreninfo

Robert Cummins is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Davis

Mark Perlman is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Western Oregon University

Andre Ariew is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rhode Island