Abstract
The rights and wrongs of adaptationism areoften discussed by appeal to what I call theartefact model. Anti-adaptationistscomplain that the use of optimality modelling,reverse engineering and other techniques areindicative of a mistaken and outmoded beliefthat organisms are like well-designedartefacts. Adaptationists (e.g. Dennett 1995)respond with the assertion that viewingorganisms as though they were well designed isa fruitful, perhaps necessary research strategyin evolutionary biology. Anti-adaptationistsare right when they say that techniques likereverse engineering are liable to mislead. This fact does not undermine the artefact modelprecisely because the same techniques misleadus for the same reasons when they are appliedunreflectively to artefacts. Thoseadaptationists who hold only that it isworthwhile to investigate organisms as thoughthey were artefacts and thoseanti-adaptationists who criticise simplisticdesign models have far more in common than thelabels attached to their positions mightsuggest.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amundson, R. and Lauder, G.V.: 1994, 'Function Without Purpose: The Uses of Causal Role Function in Evolutionary Biology', Biology and Philosophy 9, 443-469.
Barkow, J., Cosmides, L. and Tooby, J. (eds): 1992, The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Baxandall, M.: 1985, Patterns of Intention, Yale University Press, London.
Beatty, J.: 1980, 'Optimal Design Models and the Strategy of Model Building in Evolutionary Biology', Philosophy of Science 47, 532-561.
Cummins, R.: 1975, 'Functional Analysis', Journal of Philosophy 72, 741-764.
Darwin, C.: 1986, The Origin of Species, Oxford University Press, Oxford (First Published 1858).
Dawkins, R.: 1982, The Extended Phenotype, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dawkins, R.: 1986, The Blind Watchmaker, Norton, New York.
Dawkins, R.: 1996, Climbing Mount Improbable, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Dennett, D.C.: 1983, 'Intentional Systems in Cognitive Ethology: The “Panglossian Paradigm” Defended', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 6, 343-390.
Dennett, D.C.: 1988, 'Précis of the Intentional Stance', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 11, 495-546.
Dennett, D.C.: 1990, 'The Interpretation of Texts, People and Other Artifacts', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50, 177-194.
Dennett, D.C.: 1995, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Norton, New York.
Ghiselin, M.: 1983, 'Lloyd Morgan's Canon in Evolutionary Context', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 6, 362-363.
Godfrey-Smith, P.: forthcoming, 'Three Kinds of Adaptationism', in Orzack and Sober (eds), Optimality and Adaptationism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Goodwin, B.: 1994, How the Leopard Changed its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity, Charles Scribner and Sons, New York.
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R.: 1979, 'The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme', Proceedings of the Royal Society B205, 581-598.
Griffiths, P.: 1996, 'The Historical Turn in the Study of Adaptation', BJPS 47, 511-532.
Kant, I.: 1952, Critique of Judgement (translated by James Creed Meredith), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kauffman, S.A.: 1993, The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution, Oxford University Press, New York.
Kauffman, S.A.: 1995. At Home in the Universe, Oxford University Press, New York.
Krebs, J. and Davies, N.: 1997, 'Introduction to Part Two', in Krebs and Davies (eds), Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 4th edn., Blackwell Science, Oxford.
Lack, D.: 1968, Ecological Adaptations for Breeding in Birds, Methuen, London.
Lauder, G.: 1996, 'The Argument from Design', in Rose and Lauder (eds), Adaptation, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 54-91.
Lewontin, R.: 1984, 'Adaptation', in E. Sober (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, 1st edn., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Maynard Smith, J.: 1969, 'The Status of Neo-Darwinism', in Waddington (ed.), Towards a Theoretical Biology, University Press, Edinburgh.
Maynard Smith, J.: 1978, 'Optimization Theory in Evolution', Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 9, 31-56.
Maynard Smith, J. and Savage, R.: 1956, 'Some Locomotory Adaptations in Mammals', Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 42, 603-622.
Mayr, E.: 1974, 'Teleological and Teleonomic, a New Analysis', in R.S. Cohen and M.W. Wartofsky (eds), Methodological and Historical Essays in the Natural and Social Sciences, vol. 14 of Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Mayr, E.: 1983, 'How to Carry Out the Adaptationist Program', American Naturalist 121, 324-334.
Ollason, J.G.: 1987, 'Artificial Design in Natural History: Why It's So Easy to Understand Animal Behavior', in P. Bateson and P. Klopfer (eds), Alternatives: Perspectives in Ethology, Vol. 7, Plenum, New York, pp. 233-257.
Orzack, S. and Sober, E.: 1994, 'Optimality Models and the Test of Adaptationism', American Naturalist 143, 361-380.
Oster, G. and Wilson, E.O.: 1984 'A Critique of Optimization Theory in Evolutionary Biology', in E. Sober (ed.), Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, 1st edn., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Over, D.: forthcoming, 'The Rationality of Evolutionary Psychology', in J. Bermudez and A. Millar (eds), Proceeding of the 1998 Stirling Conference on Rationality and Naturalism.
Parker, G.A. and Maynard Smith, J.: 1990, 'Optimality Theory in Evolutionary Biology', Nature 348, 27-33.
Pinker, S.: 1996, How The Mind Works, Norton, New York.
Pinker, S. and Bloom, P.: 1990, 'Natural Language and Natural Selection', Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13, 707-784.
Quiring, R., Walldorf, U., Kloter, U. and Gehring, W.J.: 1994, 'Homology of the Eyeless Gene of Drosophila to the Small Eye Gene in Mice and Aniridia in Humans', Science 265, 785-789.
Raff, R.: 1996, The Shape of Life: Genes, Development and the Evolution of Animal Form, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Resnik, D.: 1995, 'Function Language and Biological Discovery', Journal for the General Philosophy of Science 26, 119-134.
Resnik, D.: 1997, 'Adaptationism: Hypothesis or Heuristic?' Biology and Philosophy 12, 39-50.
Sober, E.: 1995, 'Natural Selection and Distributive Explanation: A Reply to Neander', British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 46, 384-397.
Sober, E.: 1998, 'Six Sayings About Adaptationism', in Hull and Ruse (eds), The Philosophy of Biology, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 72-86.
Stephens, D.W. and Krebs, J.: 1986, Foraging Theory, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Sterelny, K. and Griffiths, P.: 1999, Sex and Death: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Biology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Symons, D.: 1992, 'On the Use and Misuse of Darwinism in the Study of Human Behaviour', in Barkow, Cosmides and Tooby (eds), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Walsh, D.: 1998, 'The Scope of Selection: Sober and Neander on What Natural Selection Explains', Australasian Journal of Philosophy 76, 250-264.
Wehner, R.: 1997, 'Sensory Systems and Behaviour', in Krebs and Davies (eds), Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 4th edn., Blackwell Science, Oxford.
Wehner, R. et al.: 1996, 'Visual Navigation in Insects: Coupling of Egocentric and Geocentric Information', Journal of Experimental Biology 199, 129-140.
Williams, G.: 1992 Natural Selection: Domains, Levels and Challenges, Oxford University Press, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lewens, T. Adaptationism and Engineering. Biology & Philosophy 17, 1–31 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012915007444
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012915007444