Discover Community Create You

Loading publication...

Noodle always counts identifier-free feature events for service operation. With your permission, Google Analytics can also estimate audience and engagement. Search text, publication identifiers, cookies, IP addresses and browser fingerprints are never included in Noodle's first-party event counters.

Privacy details

Article

Biological functions are causes, not effects: A critique of selected effects theories.

Studies in history and philosophy of science - 1 Feb 2024

García-Valdecasas Miguel, Deacon Terrence W

Abstract excerpt

The theory of Selected Effects (SE) is currently the most widely accepted etiological account of function in biology. It argues that the function of any trait is the effect that past traits of that type produced that contributed to its current existence. Its proper or etiological function is whatever effect was favoured by natural selection irrespective of the trait's current effects. By defining function with...

Read the complete abstract on PubMed

Topics

Share this publication in a Topic to start or enrich a Post.

Share to Biological Evolution
Share to Causality
Share to Personality

Methodology Data sources Editorial policy Privacy About Contact Helena Bioinformatics

Share to Phenotype

Share to Reproduction

Share to Selection, Genetic

Source

Identifiers

PMID: 37984082
DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2023.11.002

Provenance

PubMed metadata and Literature Corpus relationships. Corpus snapshot updated 6 Sept 2026.

Related research

Semantic proximity does not establish scientific evidence.

Research trail→

Click a neighbor to travelStep 1 · 12 closest

Biological functions are causes, not effects: A critique of selected effects theories.PMID 37984082Read ↗

Bridging the explanatory gaps: What can we learn from a biological agency perspective?Semantic proximity Read ↗

Fitness as the organismal performance measure guiding adaptive evolution.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Beyond fitness: the nature of selection acting through the constructive steps of lifecycles.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Neo-Darwinism, the modern synthesis and selfish genes: are they of use in physiology?Semantic proximity Read ↗

The flight of the locus of selection: Some intricate relationships between evolutionary elements.Semantic proximity Read ↗

The negative view of natural selection.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Population and organismal perspectives on trait origins.Semantic proximity Read ↗

The theory of facilitated variation.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Finding meaning in chaos: a selection signature for functional interactions and its use in molecular biology.Semantic proximity Read ↗

All Traits Are Functional: An Evolutionary Viewpoint.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Natural selection in relation to complexity.Semantic proximity Read ↗

Unmodern Synthesis: Developmental Hierarchies and the Origin of Phenotypes.Semantic proximity Read ↗

⌁Select a neighboring publication to make it the new centre.