Bio-semantics, ecology and content ascription
Advocates of bio-semantics propose that the content of representations be fixed with reference to their biological function. A legitimate plurality of etiological functions for a given representation, however, stands in the way of fixing content. Attempts to overcome this problem for content ascript...
- Autores:
-
Rosas, Alejandro
- Tipo de recurso:
- Article of journal
- Fecha de publicación:
- 2011
- Institución:
- Universidad Nacional de Colombia
- Repositorio:
- Universidad Nacional de Colombia
- Idioma:
- spa
- OAI Identifier:
- oai:repositorio.unal.edu.co:unal/49285
- Acceso en línea:
- https://repositorio.unal.edu.co/handle/unal/49285
http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/42742/
- Palabra clave:
- Bio-semantics
Content
Etiological functions
Ecology
Neander
Representations
- Rights
- openAccess
- License
- Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional
| Summary: | Advocates of bio-semantics propose that the content of representations be fixed with reference to their biological function. A legitimate plurality of etiological functions for a given representation, however, stands in the way of fixing content. Attempts to overcome this problem for content ascription with a counterfactual argument have been accused of misusing the selection for/selection of distinction. I reconstruct the counterfactual argument in the context of the constraints on evolutionary design that underlie an ecological theory of selection pressures. I then argue that these constraints assign a modest role to etiological function in a method for content ascription. But it requires abandoning the claim that a priori thinking in terms of etiological function will solve content ascription; in particular, it cannot replace cognitive theory and experimentation. As behavioural ecologists have warned, biological functions should not be too quickly translated into proximate, in particular perceptual, mechanisms. |
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