Hegel's Organizational Account of Biological Functions

Abstract

Two concepts have polarized the philosophical debates on functions since the 1970s. One is Millikan's concept of ‘proper function’, meant to capture the aetiology of biological organs and artefacts. The other is Cummins's concept of ‘dispositional function’, designed to account for the real work that functional devices perform within a system. In this paper I locate Hegel's concept of biological function in the context of those debates. Admittedly, Hegel's concept is ‘etiological’, since in his account the existence of purposive organs is explained by appeal to their purpose, yet, against Millikan's concept, Hegel's does not presuppose the phenomenon of natural selection nor derives the function of tokens from the function of types. So, my aim is, first, to present Hegel's approach to biological functions as one neither purely etiological nor purely dispositional. It will appear rather as an example of an organizational account (as those advocated today by McLaughlin, Mossio and others), that attributes function according to present performances (unlike etiological accounts) and emphasizes the role of functional parts in their self-production within the system they belong to (unlike dispositional accounts). Finally, I briefly discuss how Hegel's concept performs against common objections to organizational accounts.

Logical and natural life in Hegel

“…It should be noted that these authors differ both in what they identify as the main challenge that Hegel responds to and in their reconstructions of Hegel's response. In this paper, I do not attempt to settle this disagreement, though.3 SeeCooper (2020) andMaraguat (2020).4 SeeRand (2013),Alznauer (2016),Mills (2020).5 As will become clear shortly, I take Hegel to make a philosophically significant distinction between the logical concept of life and the concept of the natural organism. The logical concept of life has systematic significance for Hegel beyond its bearing on the concept of the natural organism.…”

Hegel's Case for Means and Ends: The Logic of ‘Teleology’

“… 18 Guided by what Hegel actually claims about the functions of animal organs, I have argued elsewhere that he favours an organizational concept of natural organic functions (Maraguat 2020). Through the present argument this statement is qualified, rather than contradicted.…”

Teleology and mechanism: a dialectical approach

“…With regard to Hegel scholarship, several authors have stressed the proximity between Hegel and the autonomy framework (Gambarotto & Illetterati, 2020;Gambarotto & Mossio, 2022;Marques, 2016;Michelini, 2012;Michelini et al, 2018), in some cases portraying Hegel as an early endorser of an organizational account of functions (Cooper, 2020;Corti, 2022;Maraguat, 2020). These studies focus mainly on the sections of the Philosophy of Nature dedicated to the animal organism, mostly leaving aside the Teleology chapter in the Science of Logic.…”