Drawing on insights from causal theories of reference, teleosemantics, and state space
semantics, a theory of naturalized mental representation. In A Mark of the Mental, Karen …

Disputes about the causal structure of natural selection have implications for teleosemantics.
Etiological, mainstream teleosemantics is based on a causalist view of natural selection. The …

We explore the limitations of the adaptationist view of evolution and propose an alternative.
While gradual adaptation can explain some biological and economic diversity, it cannot …

The functional theory of boredom maintains that boredom ought to be defined in terms of its
role in our mental and behavioral economy. Although the functional theory has recently …

It is one thing to hold that merely statistical evidence is sometimes insufficient for rational
belief, as in typical lottery and profiling cases. It is another thing to hold that merely statistical …

I distinguish two forms of pluralism about biological functions, between-discipline pluralism
and within-discipline pluralism. Between-discipline pluralism holds that different theories of …

Theories of function are conventionally divided up into historical and ahistorical ones.
Proponents of ahistorical theories often cite the ahistoricity of their accounts as a major …

One of the most important things that the Darwinian revolution affected is the previous
teleological thinking. In particular, the attribution of functions to various entities of the natural …

Abstract Elselijn Kingma argues that Christopher Boorse's biostatistical theory (the BST)
does not show how the reference classes it uses are objective and naturalistic. Recently …

The goal of this essay is to assess the Selected-Effects Etiological Theory of biological
function, according to which a trait has a function F if and only if it has been selected for F …