Four notions of biological function

Wouters, Arno

doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2003.09.006

Cited by 114 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This section provides a discussion of the nature of biological function, while the next section addresses the nature of bodily homeostasis. In the philosophical literature, there is a robust discussion, not only on the nature of biological function (Ananth 2017;Nissan 1997and Wouters 2003aand 2003b but also on the variety of evolutionary accounts of function with respect to health and disease (see Ananth 2008, for citations). The result is that four accounts of biological function have emerged as front runners: (1) Systemic Functionalism, (2) Etiological Evolutionary Functionalism, (3) Propensity Evolutionary Functionalism, and (4) Mixed Evolutionary Functionalism.…”

Section: Systemic Functionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Organisms from an Evolutionary Perspective: Its Significance for Medicine

Ananth

2017

Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine

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Section: Systemic Functionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Organisms from an Evolutionary Perspective: Its Significance for Medicine

Ananth

2017

Handbook of the Philosophy of Medicine

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“…«Computar», en este sentido, no significa otra cosa que la manipulación de sím-bolos mediante (1) su secuenciación y (2) su eventual mantenimiento en un espacio de memoria de trabajo a efectos de la aplicación de nuevas operaciones sobre las secuencias ya generadas 30 . Nada de esto guarda sin embargo relación con el Wouters (2003). 30 Aplicar un punto de vista computacional supone, asimismo, considerar todas estas unidades y operaciones pasando por alto su realización última en términos físicos.…”

Section: La Homología Se Confirmaunclassified

Devo-darwinismo : lo que el lenguaje nos enseña sobre el papel del desarrollo en la evolución natural

Lorenzo¹

2010

Endoxa (Madr.)

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RESUMEN: En su intento por neutralizar la aparente excepcionalidad del lenguaje, Darwin intuyó un hilo de continuidad entre este rasgo exclusivo de los humanos y el canto de los pájaros. Recientes hallazgos moleculares confirman que pudiera tratarse de un ejemplo de verdadera homología. Este trabajo repasa este aspecto del pensamiento de Darwin y comenta su significado en el contexto de la moderna biología evolutiva del desarrollo. Se sostiene que la confirmación de la mencionada homología no requiere, sin embargo, aceptar la existencia de una línea de evolución gradual entre una y otra habilidad, ni que en el proceso hayan realmente operado los mecanismos de selección sexual o natural.PALABRAS CLAVE: Cognición animal, Darwin, evo-devo, homología, lenguaje, ABSTRACT: Darwin established an evolutionary link between birdsong and human language when trying to coun-

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“…This challenge of accounting for dissociated evolvability on different levels is increased by the fact that in addition to structural organization as traditionally construed, there is also functional organization. As Love (this issue) discusses in detail, several biological fields (molecular developmental biology, functional morphology) appeal to homologous functions, where 'function' is for the most part understood as activity (see also Wouters 2003). Just as structural homologues are spatially related in a structural organization (where one structure can be the mereological part of a larger structure), functions are connected by procedural interdependencies (where a function can contribute to and be part of a larger system, which is itself a hierarchically organized activity-function).…”

Section: Further Challenges: Homologues On Different Organismal Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Typology now: homology and developmental constraints explain evolvability

Brigandt

2007

Biol Philos

124

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By linking the concepts of homology and morphological organization to evolvability, this paper attempts to 1) bridge the gap between developmental and phylogenetic approaches to homology and to 2) show that developmental constraints and natural selection are compatible and in fact complementary. I conceive of a homologue as a unit of morphological evolvability, i.e., as a part of an organism that can exhibit heritable phenotypic variation independently of the organism's other homologues. An account of homology therefore consists in explaining how an organism's developmental constitution results in different homologues/characters as units that can evolve independently of each other. The explanans of an account of homology is developmental, yet the very explanandum is an evolutionary phenomenon: evolvability in a character-by-character fashion, which manifests itself in phylogenetic patterns as recognized by phylogenetic approaches to homology. While developmental constraints and selection have often been viewed as antagonistic forces, I argue that both are complementary as they concern different parts of the evolutionary process. Developmental constraints, conceived of as the presence of the same set of homologues across phenotypic change, pertain to how heritable variation can be generated in the first place (evolvability), while natural selection operates subsequently on the produced variation. TYPOLOGY NOW3

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Four notions of biological function

Cited by 114 publications

References 32 publications

Human Organisms from an Evolutionary Perspective: Its Significance for Medicine

Human Organisms from an Evolutionary Perspective: Its Significance for Medicine

Devo-darwinismo : lo que el lenguaje nos enseña sobre el papel del desarrollo en la evolución natural

Typology now: homology and developmental constraints explain evolvability

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