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Edmond Goblot’s (1858–1935) Selected Effects Theory of Function: A Reappraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Justin Garson
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Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the French philosopher of science Edmond Goblot wrote three prescient papers on function and teleology. He advanced the remarkable thesis that functions are, as a matter of conceptual analysis, selected effects. He also argued that “selection” must be understood broadly to include both evolutionary natural selection and intelligent design. Here, I do three things. First, I give an overview of Goblot’s thought. Second, I identify his core thesis about function. Third, I argue that, despite its ingenuity, Goblot’s expansive construal of function cannot be right. Still, Goblot deserves long-overdue credit for his work.

Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 88 , Issue 5 , December 2021 , pp. 1210 - 1220
Copyright
Copyright 2021 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

†

I’d like to thank the participants of the workshop The Concept of Function in Biology: New Philosophical Perspectives held at Université du Québec à Montréal on October 4, 2019, including Brandon Conley, Antoine Dussault, Christophe Malaterre, and Parisa Moosavi. I particularly wish to thank the organizers, Antoine Dussault and Christophe Malaterre, for their valuable feedback. I’m also grateful to Sarah Arnaud and Dan Dennett for their comments on an earlier draft.

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