Organisms and Artifacts: Design in Nature and Elsewhere (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology) Hardcover - 2004

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In Organisms and Artifacts Tim Lewens investigates the analogical use of the language of design in evolutionary biology. Uniquely among the natural sciences, biology uses descriptive and explanatory terms more suited to artefacts than organisms. When biologists discuss, for example, the purpose of the panda's thumb and look for functional explanations for organic traits, they borrow from a vocabulary of intelligent design that Darwin's findings could have made irrelevant over a hundred years ago. Lewens argues that examining the analogy between the processes of evolution and the processes by which artefacts are created - looking at organisms as analogical artefacts - sheds light on explanations of the form of both organic and inorganic objects. He argues further that understanding the analogy is important for what it can tell us not only about biology but about technology and philosophy. In the course of his argument Lewens discusses issues of interest to philosophers of biology, biologists, philosophers of mind and students of technology. These issues include the pitfalls of the design-based thinking of adaptationism, the possible conflict between selection explanations and develo

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