What Functions Explain - Functional Explanation and Self-Reproducing Systems

This 2001 book provides a sophisticated and detailed Aristotelian analysis of our concept of natural functions.

List of contents

Acknowledgements; Part I. Functions and Intentions: 1. Introduction; 2. The problem of teleology; 3. Intentions and the functions of artifacts; Part II. The Analysis of Functional Explanation: 4. Basic positions in philosophy of science: Hempel and Nagel; 5. The etiological view; 6. The dispositional view; Part III. Self-Reproducing Systems: 7. Artifacts and organisms; 8. Feedback mechanisms and their beneficiaries; 9. Having a good; 10. What functions explain; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Summary

This 2001 book offers an examination of functional explanation as it is used in biology and the social sciences, and focuses on the kinds of philosophical presuppositions that such explanations carry with them. It provides a sophisticated and detailed Aristotelian analysis of our concept of natural functions.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Mclaughlin, Peter Jr. McLaughlin
• Assisted by: Michael Ruse (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 09.10.2012
• EAN: 9780521782333
• ISBN: 978-0-521-78233-3
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 235 mm x 19 mm
• Weight: 549 g
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Philosoph
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works