TY - BOOK ID - 30660109 TI - Norms of nature PY - 2003 SN - 0262271257 0585481040 0262541440 0262041871 9780262271257 9780585481043 9780262041874 9780262541442 PB - Cambridge, Mass. London MIT DB - UniCat KW - Biology KW - Health & Biological Sciences KW - Biology - General KW - Natural selection. KW - Naturalism. KW - Naturalism KW - Natural selection KW - Darwinism KW - Selection, Natural KW - Philosophy. KW - PHILOSOPHY/Philosophy of Science & Technology KW - Materialism KW - Mechanism (Philosophy) KW - Philosophy KW - Positivism KW - Science KW - Genetics KW - Variation (Biology) KW - Biological invasions KW - Evolution (Biology) KW - Heredity KW - Vitalism UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:30660109 AB - The components of living systems strike us as functional-as for the sake of certain ends--and as endowed with specific norms of performance. The mammalian eye, for example, has the function of perceiving and processing light, and possession of this property tempts us to claim that token eyes are supposed to perceive and process light. That is, we tend to evaluate the performance of token eyes against the norm described in the attributed functional property. Hence the norms of nature.What, then, are the norms of nature? Whence do they arise? Out of what natural properties or relations are they constituted? In Norms of Nature, Paul Sheldon Davies argues against the prevailing view that natural norms are constituted out of some form of historical success--usually success in natural selection. He defends the view that functions are nothing more than effects that contribute to the exercise of some more general systemic capacity. Natural functions exist insofar as the components of natural systems contribute to the exercise of systemic capacities. This is so irrespective of the system's history. Even if the mammalian eye had never been selected for, it would have the function of perceiving and processing light, because those are the effects that contribute to the exercise of the visual system. The systemic approach to conceptualizing natural norms, claims Davies, is superior to the historical approach in several important ways. Especially significant is that it helps us understand how the attribution of functions within the life sciences coheres with the methods and ontology of the natural sciences generally. ER -