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Does Representational Content Arise from Biological Function?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2023

Richard J. Hall
Richard J. Hall*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Extract

Let us assume that some organisms, humans at least and the other higher animals, have internal states and behavioral states that represent things external to themselves. One of the questions that everyone would like answered about these states is: In virtue of what does such a representational state get the specific content that it has? An answer to this question that’s popular just now is: In virtue of its biological function. I believe there is a deep reason why such an answer can’t work. I shall present that reason in this paper.

First, we need to be clear about the notion of biological function that’s being appealed to here. In particular, we need to distinguish two fairly different ways of thinking about function. We could think of something’s function as what it contributes to the present functioning or output of some complex system of which it is a part. Roughly, this is Cummins’ view in (Cummins 1984).

Type
Part III. Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1990 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1990 , 1990 , pp. 193 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1990

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Footnotes

1

I would like to thank Karen Neander for helpful discussions on this topic.

References

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