Teleosemantics Without Natural Selection | Zendy

Marshall Abrams | Zendy

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Teleosemantics Without Natural Selection

Author(s) -

Marshall Abrams

Publication year - 2005

Publication title -

biology and philosophy

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667

H-Index - 50

eISSN - 1572-8404

pISSN - 0169-3867

DOI - 10.1007/s10539-005-0359-7

Subject(s) - philosophy of biology , teleology , mistake , sketch , selection (genetic algorithm) , epistemology , natural selection , content (measure theory) , function (biology) , natural (archaeology) , philosophy , philosophy of science , computer science , biology , evolutionary biology , mathematics , artificial intelligence , law , paleontology , mathematical analysis , algorithm , political science

Ruth Millikan and others advocate theories which attempt to naturalize wide mental content (e.g. beliefs’ truth conditions) in terms of function in the teleological sense, where a function is constituted in part by facts concerning past natural selection involving ancestors of a current entity. I argue that it is a mistake to base content on selection. Content should instead be based on functions which though historical, do not involve selection. I sketch an account of such functions.

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