Function as a causal role in a biological model

Maël Lemoine (1, 2)

1 iBraiN - Imaging, Brain & Neuropsychiatry
2 IHPST - Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques

Philosophers of biology usually distinguish historical and systemic accounts of functions. In many areas of experimental biology the "systemic" account is often the most relevant. Yet there are problems this account does admittedly not face up to very well. My contention is that, though two minor problems are irredeemably unsolvable for the systemic account of function, the major ones can be solved by assuming that 'function' denotes (directly) a causal role in a model and (indirectly) the corresponding process in nature. I try to show this through the analysis of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis of stress.

Mots clés: function; philosophy of biology

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Maël Lemoine. Function as a causal role in a biological model. 14th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (CLMPS), Jul 2011, Nancy, France. ⟨halshs-00792419⟩