- Title Pages
- Series Foreword
- Preface
-
1 Philosophical Perspectives on Organismic and Artifactual Functions -
II Bridging Functions of Organisms and Artifacts -
2 Changing the Mission of Theories of Teleology: DOs and DON’Ts for Thinking About Function -
3 Biological and Cultural Proper Functions in Comparative Perspective -
4 How Biological, Cultural, and Intended Functions Combine -
5 On Unification: Taking Technical Functions as Objective (and Biological Functions as Subjective) -
III Functions and Normativity -
6 Functions and Norms -
7 The Inherent Normativity of Functions in Biology and Technology -
8 Conceptual Conservatism: The Case of Normative Functions -
9 Ecological Restoration: From Functional Descriptions to Normative Prescriptions -
IV Functions and Classification -
10 Being For: A Philosophical Hypothesis About the Structure of Functional Knowledge -
11 Realism and Artifact Kinds -
12 A Device-Oriented Definition of Functions of Artifacts and Its Perspectives -
V Evolutionary Perspectives -
13 The Open Border: Two Cases of Concept Transfer from Organisms to Artifacts -
14 Innovation and Population -
15 The Cost of Modularity -
16 Technical Artifacts, Engineering Practice, and Emergence - Contributors
- Index
The Inherent Normativity of Functions in Biology and Technology
The Inherent Normativity of Functions in Biology and Technology
- Chapter:
- (p.103) 7 The Inherent Normativity of Functions in Biology and Technology
- Source:
- Functions in Biological and Artificial Worlds
- Author(s):
Maarten Franssen
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
This chapter examines the role that is played in the debate on what is and what is not the adequate theory of function, by the claim that “function” is an inherently normative concept. It explores exactly how the theories that claim to be able to account for the normativity of function go about doing this. This chapter shows that the proponents of proper function (PF) -type theories do not treat their preferred concept of “function” as being inherently normative. It suggests that systems-with-a-design (SD) theory's central notion of “type fixation” be given a stronger naturalistic footing.
Keywords: normativity, proper function, systems-with-a-design theory, type fixation, normative concept
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- Title Pages
- Series Foreword
- Preface
-
1 Philosophical Perspectives on Organismic and Artifactual Functions -
II Bridging Functions of Organisms and Artifacts -
2 Changing the Mission of Theories of Teleology: DOs and DON’Ts for Thinking About Function -
3 Biological and Cultural Proper Functions in Comparative Perspective -
4 How Biological, Cultural, and Intended Functions Combine -
5 On Unification: Taking Technical Functions as Objective (and Biological Functions as Subjective) -
III Functions and Normativity -
6 Functions and Norms -
7 The Inherent Normativity of Functions in Biology and Technology -
8 Conceptual Conservatism: The Case of Normative Functions -
9 Ecological Restoration: From Functional Descriptions to Normative Prescriptions -
IV Functions and Classification -
10 Being For: A Philosophical Hypothesis About the Structure of Functional Knowledge -
11 Realism and Artifact Kinds -
12 A Device-Oriented Definition of Functions of Artifacts and Its Perspectives -
V Evolutionary Perspectives -
13 The Open Border: Two Cases of Concept Transfer from Organisms to Artifacts -
14 Innovation and Population -
15 The Cost of Modularity -
16 Technical Artifacts, Engineering Practice, and Emergence - Contributors
- Index
