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36 results

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  • Functions and Populations: Sharpening the Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function

  • Justin Garson
  • Journal:
    Philosophy of Science / Volume 91 / Issue 4 / October 2024
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    15 February 2024, pp. 950-968
    Print publication:
    October 2024
    • Article
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  • The generalized selected effects theory of function (GSE) holds that a trait’s proper function is an activity that historically caused its differential persistence or differential reproduction within a population, construed as a collection of individuals that impact each other’s persistence or reproduction chances. Several critics have taken aim at GSE on the grounds that its appeal to populations is either unfit for purpose or arbitrary. Here I revise GSE by articulating a notion of population that is fit for purpose and showing that its selection is not arbitrary but flows from the realist commitments of the selected effects theory.

  • Edmond Goblot’s (1858–1935) Selected Effects Theory of Function: A Reappraisal

  • Justin Garson
  • Journal:
    Philosophy of Science / Volume 88 / Issue 5 / December 2021
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    01 January 2022, pp. 1210-1220
    Print publication:
    December 2021

  • At the beginning of the twentieth century, the French philosopher of science Edmond Goblot wrote three prescient papers on function and teleology. He advanced the remarkable thesis that functions are, as a matter of conceptual analysis, selected effects. He also argued that “selection” must be understood broadly to include both evolutionary natural selection and intelligent design. Here, I do three things. First, I give an overview of Goblot’s thought. Second, I identify his core thesis about function. Third, I argue that, despite its ingenuity, Goblot’s expansive construal of function cannot be right. Still, Goblot deserves long-overdue credit for his work.

  • There Are No Ahistorical Theories of Function

  • Justin Garson
  • Journal:
    Philosophy of Science / Volume 86 / Issue 5 / December 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    01 January 2022, pp. 1146-1156
    Print publication:
    December 2019

  • Theories of function are conventionally divided up into historical and ahistorical ones. Proponents of ahistorical theories often cite the ahistoricity of their accounts as a major virtue. Here, I argue that none of the mainstream “ahistorical” accounts are actually ahistorical. All of them refer, implicitly or explicitly, to history. In Boorse’s goal-contribution account, history is latent in the idea of statistical typicality. In the propensity theory, history is implicit in the idea of a species’ natural habitat. In the causal role theory, history is required for making sense of dysfunction. I elaborate some consequences for the functions debate.

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