Abstract
Elliott Sober's selection for/selection of distinction has been widely used to clarify the idea that some properties of organisms are side-effects of selection processes. It has also been used, however, to choose between different descriptions of an evolutionary product when assigning biological functions to that product. We suggest that there is a characteristic error in these uses of the distinction. Complementary descriptions of function are misrepresented as mutually excluding one another. This error arises from a failure to appreciate that selection processes can be described at several different theoretical levels.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agar, N.: 1993, ‘What do frogs really believe?’,Australian Journal for Philosophy 71, 1–12.
Cummins, R.: 1983,The Nature of Psychological Explanation, Cambridge, Mass., Bradford Books/MIT Press.
Cummins, R.: 1975, ‘Functional Analysis’,Journal of Philosophy LXXII, 741–765.
Dawkins, R. and Krebs, J.R.: 1979, ‘Arms races between and within species’,Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 205, 489–511.
Fodor, J.A.: 1990,A Theory of Content & Other Essays, Cambridge, Mass., Bradford Books/MIT Press.
Godfrey-Smith, P.: 1991, ‘Signal, Decision, Action’,Journal of Philosophy,LXXXVIII, 709–722.
Griffiths, P.E.: 1992, ‘Adaptive Explanation and the Concept of a Vestige’, in P.E. Griffiths (ed),Trees of Life: Essays in Philosophy of Biology, Dordrecht, Kluwer.
Griffiths, P.E.: 1993, ‘Functional Analysis & Proper Function’,British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44, 409–422.
Hull, D.L.: 1987, ‘Genealogical Actors in Ecological Roles’,Biology and Philosophy 2, 168–184.
Jackson, F.C. and Pettit, P.: 1988, ‘Functionalism and Broad Content’,Mind 97, 381–400.
Lettvin, J.Y. et al.: 1959, ‘What the frog's eye tells the frog's brain’,Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 11, 230–255.
Lycan, W.G.: 1987,Consciousness, Cambridge, Mass., Bradford Books/MIT Press.
Lycan, W.G.: 1990, ‘The Continuity of Levels of Nature’, in W.G. Lycan, (ed),Mind and Cognition, Oxford, Blackwells, 77–97.
Maynard-Smith, J.: 1964, ‘Group Selection and Kin Selection’,Nature 201, 1145–1147.
Maynard-Smith, J.: 1982,Evolution and the Theory of Games, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Millikan, R.G.: 1984,Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories, Cambridge, Mass., Bradford Books/MIT Press.
Neander, K.: 1983, Abnormal Psychobiology (PhD Thesis, La Trobe University).
Neander, K.: 1991a, ‘Functions as Selected Effects: The Conceptual Analyst's Defence’,Philosophy of Science 58, 168–184.
Neander, K.: 1991b, ‘The Teleological Notion of Function’,Australasian Journal of Philosophy 69, 454–468.
Neander, K.: in press, ‘When Frogs Really Make Mistakes: Teleology and Content Indeterminacy’,Philosophical Studies.
O'Hara, R.J.: 1988, ‘Homage to Clio, or Towards an Historical Philosophy for Evolutionary Biology’,Systematic Zoology 37, 142–155.
Prior, E.: 1985, ‘What is Wrong with Etiological Accounts of Biological Function?’,Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 66, 310–328.
Shapiro, L.A.: 1992, ‘Darwin and Disjunction: Optimal Foraging Theory and Univocal Assignments of Content’,Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 1, 469–480.
Sober, E.: 1984a, ‘Force and Disposition in Evolutionary Theory’, in C. Hookway (ed),Minds, Machines and Evolution, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 43–62.
Sober, E.: 1984b, ‘Fact, Fiction and Fitness: A Reply to Rosenberg’,Journal of Philosophy LXXXI, 372–383.
Sober, E.: 1984c,The Nature of Selection, Cambridge, Mass., Bradford Books/MIT Press.
Sterelny, K.: 1990,The Representational Theory of Mind: An Introduction, Oxford, Blackwells.
Trivers, R.L.: 1985,Social Evolution, Menlo Park, Benjamin-Cummings.
Wright, L.: 1973, ‘Function’,Philosophical Review 82, 139–168.
Wright, L.: 1976,Teleological Explanations, Berkeley, University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Authors' names are in alphabetical order. We are equally responsible for any insights or errors that this paper contains.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Goode, R., Griffiths, P.E. The misuse of Sober's selection for/selection of distinction. Biol Philos 10, 99–108 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00851989
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00851989