Cartesian Functional Analysis.
Despite eschewing the utility of ends or purposes in natural philosophy, Descartes frequently engages in functional explanation, which many have assumed is an essentially teleological form of explanation. This article considers the consistency of Descartes's appeal to natural functions, advancing th...
| Published in: | Australasian Journal of Philosophy Vol. 90; no. 1; pp. 75 - 93 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Mar2012
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=71860711&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 71860711 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00048402 BHK jtl: Australasian Journal of Philosophy issn: 00048402 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2012 vid: 90 iid: 1 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 71860711 10.1080/00048402.2011.566274 ppf: 75 ppct: 18 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 138KB tig: atl: Cartesian Functional Analysis. aug: au: Brown, DeborahJ. affil: The University of Queensland su: Descartes, René, 1596-1650 Function (Biology) Teleology Causation (Philosophy) Mechanism (Philosophy) Philosophy & science Causality (Physics) sug: subj: Descartes, René, 1596-1650 Function (Biology) Teleology Causation (Philosophy) Mechanism (Philosophy) Philosophy & science Causality (Physics) ab: Despite eschewing the utility of ends or purposes in natural philosophy, Descartes frequently engages in functional explanation, which many have assumed is an essentially teleological form of explanation. This article considers the consistency of Descartes's appeal to natural functions, advancing the idea that he is utilizing a non-normative, non-teleological form of functional explanation. It will be argued that Cartesian functional analysis resembles modern causal functional analysis, and yet, by emphasizing the interdependency of parts of biological systems, is able to avoid many of the problems attendant upon modern causal theories. It is for this reason, if no other, that the study of Descartes's natural philosophy should be of interest to contemporary theorists of functional analysis. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Australasian Journal of Philosophy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Australasian Journal of Philosophy holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2012 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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