Viability explanation
Biology and Philosophy 10 (4):435-457 (1995)
| Authors |
Arno Wouters
Utrecht University
|
| Abstract |
This article deals with a type of functional explanation, viability explanation, that has been overlooked in recent philosophy of science. Viability explanations relate traits of organisms and their environments in terms of what an individual needs to survive and reproduce. I show that viability explanations are neither causal nor historical and that, therefore, they should be accounted for as a distinct type of explanation.
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| Keywords | functional explanation functional counterfactual proximate / ultimate design explanation explanation in ethology explanation in functional morphology explanation in evolutionary biology viability explanation |
| Categories | (categorize this paper) |
| DOI | 10.1007/bf00857593 |
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References found in this work BETA
Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories.Ruth Garrett Millikan - 1984 - Behaviorism 14 (1):51-56.
In Defense of Proper Functions.Ruth Garrett Millikan - 1989 - Philosophy of Science 56 (June):288-302.
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Citations of this work BETA
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