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Unity in the Concept of Function
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Christian Steiner
Published/Copyright:
November 13, 2014
Summary
This essay argues that neither the etiological nor the dispositional account of functions conforms to the actual practice by which functions are ascribed in biology. Philip Kitcher’s account, which unifies what is common to both accounts, is assessed against what biologists are actually doing when they ascribe functions. Two problems of Kitcher’s account are identified: it is too liberal and it tends to circularity, insofar as it presupposes teleological notions. Finally, an alternative account of functions is provided by characterizing the system of sentences that report natural history.
Online erschienen: 2014-11-13
Erschienen im Druck: 2009-12-1
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- Titelei
- Editorial
- One Kind of Naturalism: As an Introduction
- Taking the History of Mathematics Seriously
- Kitcher and Frege on A Priori Knowledge
- Kant and Kitcher on Apriority
- One Goal for All the Sciences?
- Representations and the Galilean Strategy
- Unity in the Concept of Function
- What Is Kitcher’s Real Realist Really a Realist about?
- Self-Conceptions and Evolution: A Critical Comment on Philip Kitcher’s The Ethical Project
- 200 Jahre Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Zum Begriff des Eigentums
- Merker, Barbara (Hg.), Leben mit Gefühlen. Emotionen, Werte und ihre Kritik. Paderborn: mentis. 2009.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Editorial
- One Kind of Naturalism: As an Introduction
- Taking the History of Mathematics Seriously
- Kitcher and Frege on A Priori Knowledge
- Kant and Kitcher on Apriority
- One Goal for All the Sciences?
- Representations and the Galilean Strategy
- Unity in the Concept of Function
- What Is Kitcher’s Real Realist Really a Realist about?
- Self-Conceptions and Evolution: A Critical Comment on Philip Kitcher’s The Ethical Project
- 200 Jahre Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: Zum Begriff des Eigentums
- Merker, Barbara (Hg.), Leben mit Gefühlen. Emotionen, Werte und ihre Kritik. Paderborn: mentis. 2009.
