Abstract
Are attributions of content and function determinate, or is there no fact of the matter to be fixed? Daniel Dennett has argued in favor of indeterminacy and concludes that, in practice, content and function cannot be fixed. The discovery of an electrical modality in vertebrates offers one concrete instance where attributions of function and content are supported by a strong scientific consensus. A century ago, electroreception was unimagined, whereas today it is widely believed that many species of bony fish, amphibians, sharks, skates, and rays possess this non-human sensory modality. A look at the history of science related to this discovery reveals a highly interdisciplinary endeavor, encompassing ethology, behavioral analysis, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. While each area provides important evidence, none is sufficient on its own to fix content and function. Instead, I argue that an interdisciplinary, neuroethological approach is required to carry out such determinations. Further, a detailed consideration of biological research suggests that while content and function claims are empirically underdetermined and uncertain, there is insufficient reason to believe in an additional problem of indeterminism. In particular, Dennett's indeterminism arises from a research methodology -- logical adaptationism -- that generates evidence from only one of the areas of neuroethology. However, logical adaptationism does not reflect adaptationism as it is practiced in contemporary biology. I conclude that Dennett is faced with a dilemma: On the one hand, he can hold to logical adaptationism and the indeterminism that results from it, while giving up the relevance of his arguments to biological practice. On the other, he can embrace a more accurate version of adaptationism -- one which plays a role in a larger neuroethological framework -- but from which no strong indeterminacy claims follow.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akins, K.: 1993, ‘What Is It Like to be Boring and Myopic?’ in B. Dahlbom (ed.), Dennett and His Critics: Demystifying Mind, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 124-160.
Amundson, R.: 1988, ‘Logical Adaptationism’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 11, 505-506.
Bullock, T.H.: 1974, ‘An Essay on the Discovery of Sensory Receptors and the Assignment of Their Functions Together with an Introduction to Electroreceptors’, in A. Fessard (ed.), Handbook of Sensory Physiology, (Vol. 3), Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1-12. Reprinted as Bullock (1993: pp. 171–182).
Bullock, T.H.: 1993, How Do Brains Work? Papers of a Comparative Neurophysiologist, Birkaäuser, Boston.
Bullock, T.H., Hagiwara, S., Kusano, K. and Negishi, K.: 1961, ‘Evidence for a Category of Electroreceptors in the Lateral Line of Gymnotid Fishes’, Science 134, 1426-1427. Reprinted as Bullock (1993: p. 140).
Bullock, T.H. and Heiligenberg, W. (eds.): 1986, Electroreception, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Bullock, T.H. and Szabo, T.: 1986, ‘Introduction’, in Heiligenberg, W. (eds.): 1986, Electroreception, John Wiley & Sons, New York Bullock and Heiligenberg (1986: pp. 1-12).
Catania, K.C.: 1994, The Sensory Biology of the Star-nosed Mole. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, San Diego.
Coates, C.W.: 1947, ‘The Kick of an Electric Eel’, The Atlantic 180, 75-79.
Dalhgren, U.: 1910, ‘The Origin of the Electric Tissues in Fishes’, The American Naturalist 44, 193-202.
Darwin, C.: 1897, On the Origin of Species, M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Dennett, D.C.: 1988a, ‘Précis of The Intentional Stance’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 11, 495-505.
Dennett, D.C.: ‘Author's Response: Science, Philosophy, and interpretation’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 11, 535-546.
Dretske, F.: 1981, Knowledge and the Flow of Information, M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Dretske, F.: 1988, Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes, M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Dretske, F.: 1995, Naturalizing the Mind (The 1994 Jean Nicod Lectures), M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Du Bois-Reymond, E.: 1884, Untersuchungen über thierische Elektricatät, (Vol. 3), Berlin, Reimer.
Fields, R.D. and Ellisman, M.H.: 1988, ‘Functionally Significant Plasticity of Synaptic Morphology: Studies on the Ribbon Synapse of the Ampullae of Lorenzini’, Neuroscience 25, 705-720.
Gould, E., McShea, W. and Grand, T.: 1993, ‘Function of the Star in the Star-nosed Mole’, Condylura cristat. Journal of Mammalogy 74, 108-116.
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R.C.: 1979, ‘The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 8, 205-258.
Hagedorn, M. and Heiligenberg, W.: 1985, ‘Court and Spark: Electrical Signals in the Courtship and Mating of Gymnotid Fish’, Animal Behaviour 33, 254-265.
Heiligenberg, W.: 1991, Neural Nets in Electric Fish, M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Hempel, C.G.: 1966, The Philosophy of Natural Science, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J.
Hensel, H.: 1955, ‘Quantitative Beziehungen zwischen Temperaturreiz und Aktionspotentialen der Lorenzinischen Ampullen’, Z. vergl. Physiol. 37, 509-526.
Hopkins, C.D.: 1977, ‘Electric Communication’, in T.A. Sebeok (ed.), How Animals Communicate, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp. 263-289.
Kalmijn, A.J.: 1982, ‘Electric and Magnetic Field Detection in Elasmobranch Fishes’, Science 218, 916-918.
Kalmijn, A.J.: 1987, ‘Detection of Weak Electric Fields’, in J. Atema, R. R. Fay, A.N. Popper and W.N. Tavolga (eds.), Sensory Biology of Aquatic Animals, Springer-Verlag, 151-186.
Keeley, B.: 1997, Cognitive Science as the Computational Neuroethology of Intelligent Behavior: Why Biological Facts are Important for Explaining Intelligent Behavior. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, San Diego.
Kitcher P. and Kitcher, P.: 1988, ‘The Devil, the Details, and Dr. Dennett’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 11, 517-518.
Lissmann, H.W.: 1951, ‘Continuous Electrical Signals for the Tail of a Fish, gymnarchus niloticus Cuv.’ Nature 167, 201-202.
Lissmann, H.W.: 1958, ‘On the Function and Evolution of Electric Organs in Fish’, Journal of Experimental Biology 35, 156-191.
Lissmann, H.W.: 1961, ‘Ecological Studies on Gymnotids’, in C. Chagas and A. Paes de Carvalho (eds.), Bioelectrogenesis: A Comparative Survey of its Mechanisms with Particular Emphasis on Electric Fishes, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp. 215-226.
Lissmann, H.W. and Machin, K.E.: 1958, ‘The Mechanism of Object Location in Gymnarchus niloticus and Similar Fish’, Jourhal of Experimental Biology 35, 451-486.
Loewenstein, W.R.: 1960, ‘Mechanisms of Nerve Impulse Initiation in a Pressure Receptor (Lorenzinian Ampulla)’, Nature 188, 1034-1035.
Loewenstein, W.R. and Ishiko, N.: 1962, ‘Sodium Chloride Sensitivity and Electro-chemical Effects in a Lorenzinian Ampulla’, Nature 194, 292-294.
Millikan, R.G.: 1984, Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for Realism, M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Millikan, R.G.: 1993, White Queen Psychology and Other Essays for Alice, M.I.T. Press (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.
Moller, P.: 1995, Electric Fishes: History and Behavior, Chapman & Hall, New York.
Moller, P. and Fritzsch, B.: 1993, ‘From Electrodetection to Electroreception: The Problem of Understanding a Non-human Sense’, Journal of Comparative Physiology A 173, 734-737.
Murray, R.W.: 1960, ‘The Response of the Ampullae of Lorenzini to Mechanical Stimulation’, Journal of Experimental Biology 37, 417-424.
Murray, R.W.: 1962, ‘The Response of the Ampullae of Lorenzini to Electrical Stimulation’, Journal of Experimental Biology 39, 119-128.
Parker, G.W. and van Heusen, A.P.: 1917, ‘The Responses of the Catfish, Amiurus nebulosus, to Metallic and Non-metallic Rods’, American Journal of Physiology 44, 405-420.
Rosenberg, H.: 1928, ‘Die elektrischen Organe’, in A. Bethe, G. von Bergmann, G. Einbaum and A. Ellinger (eds.), Handbook der Normalen und Pathologischen Physiologie, Springer, Berlin, pp. 876-925.
Sand, A.: 1938, ‘The Function of the Ampullae of Lorenzini with Some Observations on the Effect of Temperature on Sensory Rhythms’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 125, 524-553.
Scheich, H.G., Langmer, C., Tidemann, C., Coles, R.B. and Guppy, A.: 1986, ‘Electroreception and Electrolocation in the Platypus’, Nature 319, 401-402.
Schlegel, P.A. and Richard, P.B.: 1992, ‘Behavioral Evidence Against Possible Subaquatic Electrosensitivity in the Pyrenean Desman Galemys pyrenaicus (Talpidae, mammalia)’, Mammalia 56, 527-532.
Snow, C.P.: 1959, The Two Cultures: And a Second Look, Cambridge University press, Cambridge.
Wu, C.H.: 1984, ‘Electric Fish and the Discovery of Animal Electricity’, American Scientist 72, 598-607.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Keeley, B.L. Fixing Content and Function in Neurobiological Systems: The Neuroethology of Electroreception. Biology & Philosophy 14, 395–430 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006594531789
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006594531789