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Natural Selection and the Unity of Functional Analyses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Adela Helena Roszkowski
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Extract

While the question of whether selected-effects accounts of function or causal-role accounts of function provide the ‘true’ functional analysis has given way to a general pluralistic consensus, Philip Kitcher has suggested that different functional accounts allow for unification. I argue that Kitcher's attempt to unify the two functional analyses fails because he adopts the environment-centered perspective on selection as a premise. The premise is undermined by the role niche construction is likely to play in the context of evolution. Moreover, I raise the tentative suggestion that niche construction may threaten the applicability, or at least the relevance, of selected-effects ascriptions.

Type
Student Essays
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 633 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

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This article is the winner of the 2008 PSA Graduate Student Essay Award.

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