Organisms and Artifacts: Design in Nature and Elsewhere

196 Pages·2004·3.4 MB·English

by  Tim Lewens

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ORGANISMS
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explanations and developmental explanations, a “I find the work extremely original and philosophically quite sound. Lewens’s work In Organisms and ArtifactsTim Lewens investigates
LEWENS
Design in Nature and Elsewhere Tim
proposed explanation of biological function, and successfully removes a lot of the irrelevant issues that contrast material theories of the analogical use of the language of design in
prospects for an informative evolutionary model evolution by natural selection with notions of human design.” L evolutionary biology. Uniquely among the natural
e
of technological change. Emerging from these Richard LEWONTIN, Alexander Agassiz Research Professor, Harvard University w sciences, biology uses descriptive and explanatory
e
discussions is an explanation of the use of the n terms more suited to artifacts than organisms.
s
vocabulary of intelligence and intention in biology “I had long thought that the topic of function in biology was exhausted. Organisms and When biologists discuss, for example, the purpose
that does not itself draw on the ideas of intelli- Artifacts, Tim Lewens’s splendid new book, shows that I was quite wrong. Lewens of the panda’s thumb and look for functional
gent design, which will be of interest in the on- unites a deep understanding of biology with a keen nose for a philosophical problem, explanations of organic traits, they borrow from
going debate over intelligent design creationism. and he has produced a work that is insightful and (just as important) highly inter- a vocabulary of intelligent design that Darwin’s
Tim Lewens is University Lecturer in esting. This book will give an old problem really new life, and must be the starting point findings could have made irrelevant over a
History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge for all future discussion.” hundred years ago. Lewens argues that examin-
University. Michael RUSE, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University ing the analogy between the processes of evolution
and the processes by which artifacts are created—
looking at organisms as analogical artifacts—
sheds light on explanations of the form of both
organic and inorganic objects. He argues further
that understanding the analogy is important for
what it can tell us not only about biology but about
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Life and Mind series A BRADFORD BOOK
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Organisms and Artifacts
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology
Kim Sterelny and Robert A. Wilson, editors
CyclesofContigency:DevelopmentalSystemsandEvolution
SusanOyama,PaulE.Griffiths,andRussellD.Gray,editors,2000
CoherenceinThoughtandAction
PaulThagard,2000
EvolutionandLearning:TheBaldwinEffectReconsidered
BruceH.WeberandDavidJ.Depew,2003
SeeingandVisualizing:It’sNotWhatYouThink
ZenonPylyshyn,2003
TheMindIncarnate
LawrenceA.Shapiro,2004
OrganismsandArtifacts:DesigninNatureandElsewhere
TimLewens,2004
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Organisms and Artifacts
Design in Nature and Elsewhere
Tim Lewens
ABradfordBook
TheMITPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts
London,England
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
©2004MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformbyany
electronicormechanicalmeans(includingphotocopying,recording,orinforma-
tionstorageandretrieval)withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
This book was set in Sabon by Interactive Composition Corporation and was
printedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Lewens,Tim.
Organismsandartifacts:designinnatureandelsewhere/TimLewens.
p. cm.—(Lifeandmind)
“ABradfordBook.”
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-262-12261-8(hc:alk.paper)
1. Biology—Philosophy. I. Title. II. Series.
QH331.L533 2004
570(cid:1).1—dc22
2003061768
10987654321
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Time out of mind it has been by way of the “final cause,” by the teleological
conceptofend,ofpurposeorof“design,”inoneofitsmanyforms(foritsmoods
aremany),thatmenhavebeenchieflywonttoexplainthephenomenaoftheliving
world,anditwillbesowhilemenhaveeyestoseeandearstohearwithal.
—D’ArcyThompson,OnGrowthandForm
It[teleology]isimportant,butmysense...isthatthereisafeelingthatbasically
thesubjectisworkedout.Naturalselectionproducesdesign-likeobjectsandso
functiontalkisappropriate....Ofcourse,asalwaysinphilosophythereisscope
forallthosebizarrecounter-examplestowhichweallseemsoaddicted...;but
franklythisisthestuffofPhDthesesandnottherealworld.
—MichaelRuse,“Booknotes,”BiologyandPhilosophy
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Contents
Preface ix
1 MeaningandtheMeanstoanUnderstandingofEnds 1
2 WhyIsanEye? 21
3 AdaptationismandEngineering 39
4 OnFive“-Isms” 67
5 Function,Selection,andExplanation 87
6 DeflatingFunction 119
7 ArtifactsandOrganisms 139
References 167
Index 177
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Lewens-79044 book October15,2003 12:19
Preface
An outsider who looks at evolutionary biologists’ language might think
they are behind the times. What is all this talk of solutions adopted by
species to deal with the problems laid down by environments? Why do
biologistspersistinaskingwhatthepeacock’stail,ortheearwig’ssecond
penis, are for? Shouldn’t they have stopped talking about the purpose
of the panda’s thumb over a hundred years ago? All this talk smacks of
intelligent design—of artifacts, not of organisms. Yet Darwin taught us
(ormaybeitwasHume)thatorganismsarenotartifacts.Whatismore,
it is often the biologists keenest to distance themselves from any non-
sense about intelligent design who are nonetheless the first to trumpet
the excellence of design in nature, and who look most eagerly for func-
tional explanations for any and all organic traits or behaviors. Could it
be that there are vestiges of natural theology lurking in this language of
design?Thisbookisaninvestigationofananalogy—theanalogybetween
the processes of evolution and the processes by which artifacts are cre-
ated. I try to show how looking at the two domains together can shed
light on how we should explain the form of both organic and inorganic
objects, and how our conclusions about natural design can inform var-
ious philosophical projects. It is important to understand the organism/
artifact analogy for what it can tell us about biology, technology, and
philosophy.
Thisbookisaddressedprimarilyatphilosophersofbiology;thissaid,
I hope also that real biologists, students of technology, philosophers of
mind—even some civilians—will find lots to interest them. Chapter 2
looks at biology alone, yet its conclusions are used as foundations for
work done in all the remaining chapters, and all types of reader are