Does proper function come in degrees?
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Does proper function come in degrees? John Matthewson1 Received: 12 January 2020 / Accepted: 26 June 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Natural selection comes in degrees. Some biological traits are subjected to stronger selective force than others, selection on particular traits waxes and wanes over time, and some groups can only undergo an attenuated kind of selective process. This has downstream consequences for any notions that are standardly treated as binary but depend on natural selection. For instance, the proper function of a biological structure can be defined as what caused that (type of) structure to be retained by natural selection in the past. We usually think of proper functions in binary terms: storing bile is a function of the gall bladder, but making stones is not. However, if functions arise through natural selection, and natural selection comes in degrees, then a binary approach to proper functions is in tension with the biological facts. In order to resolve this tension, we need to revise our standard accounts of proper function. In particular, we may have to seriously consider the possibility that functions themselves come in degrees, in spite of the ramifications this will have for the way we speak about functions and related concepts such as dysfunction, disease, and teleosemantic content. Keywords Natural selection · Function · Disease · Teleosemantics
Introduction: biological proper functions Every object exhibits a variety of causal properties. My set of Allen keys at home can be used to tighten or loosen certain specific screws, and they also make a loud crashing noise when I open the tool drawer quickly. A polar bear’s thick coat helps keep it warm, and it also makes the bear heavier (Goode and Griffiths 1995, 103). However, some of these causal properties are distinctive in an important way: they are functions of the object. It is a function of my Allen keys to tighten screws, but it is not their function to make crashing noises. It is a function of thick coats to insulate their owners from the cold but not to make them heavier. Functions are * John Matthewson [email protected] 1
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different from other causal properties of an object because they connote some kind of purpose: a function is what that object “is for”, and can be used to explain why the object “is there” (Garson 2017, p. 526). I have Allen keys in my house because of their screw-tightening properties, not because of the noise they make. This notion of “what something is for” is often referred to as the proper function of that thing. An object can have a proper function that, as a matter of fact, it does not (or cannot) perform. If one of the Allen keys bends so much I can’t use it to unscrew something, it still has that function. This is why we can say that a badly bent Allen key is dysfunctional. Similarly, when we claim that a function of polar bear coats i
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