The Functional Perspective of Organismal Biology

Wouters, Arno

doi:10.1007/1-4020-2904-7_3

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In biology, organisms are seen as mechanisms for being alive [59]. For the purpose of this section, a mechanism for a certain behavior can be defined as a complex system producing behavior by the organized interaction of its parts [60,61].…”

Section: Pragmatic Information and Causationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatic Information as a Unifying Biological Concept

Maleeh

2014

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This paper aims to introduce a developed reading of Roederer's interpretation of pragmatic information as a good candidate for a Unifying Information Concept required for an as-yet-unavailable Science of Information. According to pragmatic information, information and information processing are exclusive attributes of biological systems related to the very definition of life. I will apply the notion to give new accounts in the following areas: (1) quantum interpretation: based on a modified version of David Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics, I propose an ontological, information-based interpretation of quantum mechanics which, unlike Roederer's interpretation, satisfies all conditions of pragmatic information; (2) artificial intelligence: the notion successfully distinguishes natural living systems from artifacts and natural non-living systems, providing a context to pose an information-based argument against the thesis of Strong Artificial Intelligence; (3) phenomenal consciousness: I will use pragmatic information to modify and update Chalmers's Double-aspect Theory of Information to be explanatorily more powerful regarding the physical aspect of his theory; (4) causation: based on pragmatic information, I pose a new account of causation which differentiates causation in biology from causation in natural abiotic world.

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Section: Pragmatic Information and Causationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatic Information as a Unifying Biological Concept

Maleeh

2014

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“…However, several authors have main-7. Wouters makes a similar point when he identifies the target of explanation in much experimental biology as the viability of the organism, rather than its ability to produce a selectively optimal phenotype (Wouters 1995(Wouters , 2005a tained that the sense of 'function' in which biologists have talked for well over a century about 'form and function', and the sense in which experimental sciences such as anatomy, physiology, comparative morphology, developmental and molecular biology experimentally elucidate 'form and function' is causal function (Amundson and Lauder 1994;Amundson 2005;Griffiths 1994;Lewens 2004;Wouters 1995Wouters , 2005aWouters , 2005b. Karen Neander has argued that these authors are mistaken on the grounds that the categories of part and process found in these sciences are all at least partially defined in terms of selected function.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, there is disagreement as to which notion of function predominates in 'experimental biology' (Weber 2004)-disciplines such as anatomy, physiology, developmental biology, and molecular biology, which experimentally investigate the structure and function of biological systems (Godfrey-Smith 1994;Lewens 2004;Wouters 1995Wouters , 2005aWouters , 2005bNeander 2002;Millikan 2002). In this paper I focus on what I believe is the most influential argument for the view that these sciences investigate selected, as opposed to causal function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Function, Homology, and Character Individuation

Griffiths¹

2006

Philos. of Sci.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Function, Homology, and Character Individuation* Paul E. Griffiths † I defend the view that many biological categories are defined by homology against a series of arguments designed to show that all biological categories are defined, at least in part, by selected function. I show that categories of homology are 'abnormality inclusive'-something often alleged to be unique to selected function categories. I show that classifications by selected function are logically dependent on classifications by homology, but not vice-versa. Finally, I reject the view that biologists must use considerations of selected function to abstract away from variation and pathology to form a canonical description of a class of biological systems.

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“…In the past few years a number of other philosophers of science have questioned the idea that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, whether in Dobzhansky's original sense of shared history or in the revised sense of a history of adaptation (Weber, 2005;Wouters, 2005aWouters, , 2005bWouters, , 2007. They have pointed out that much successful research in fields such as physiology and molecular biology is conducted by scientists who have minimal information about the evolution of the parts and processes they study, that those scientists often evince little interest in finding out the details of their evolution, and that the acquiring knowledge of those details would be very difficult.…”

Section: Dobzhansky In 1955 Near the Cristo Redentor De Los Andes Monmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The leading advocate of the view that some areas of biology can do without an evolutionary perspective is Arno Wouters (1995Wouters ( , 2003Wouters ( , 2005aWouters ( , 2005b:…”

Section: Can Biology Do Without An Evolutionary Perspective?mentioning

confidence: 99%