Justin Garson
YOU?
Author Swipe
View article: Madness Revisited
Madness Revisited Open
The following provides the author’s responses to the four commentaries on Madness: A Philosophical Exploration, written by Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Eleanor Palafox-Harris and Ema Sullivan-Bissett, Miguel Núñez de Prado Gordillo, and Sofia Jep…
View article: Functions and Populations: Sharpening the Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function
Functions and Populations: Sharpening the Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function Open
The generalized selected effects theory of function (GSE) holds that a trait’s proper function is an activity that historically caused its differential persistence or differential reproduction within a population, construed as a collection…
View article: Edmond Goblot’s (1858–1935) Selected Effects Theory of Function: A Reappraisal
Edmond Goblot’s (1858–1935) Selected Effects Theory of Function: A Reappraisal Open
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the French philosopher of science Edmond Goblot wrote three prescient papers on function and teleology. He advanced the remarkable thesis that functions are, as a matter of conceptual analysis, se…
View article: Defining Mental Disorder
Defining Mental Disorder Open
Philosophers discuss Jerome Wakefield's influential view of mental disorder as “harmful dysfunction,” with detailed responses from Wakefield himself. One of the most pressing theoretical problems of psychiatry is the definition of mental d…
View article: The Developmental Plasticity Challenge to Wakefield’s View
The Developmental Plasticity Challenge to Wakefield’s View Open
View article: There Are No Ahistorical Theories of Function
There Are No Ahistorical Theories of Function Open
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 virtue. Here, I argue that none of the mainstream “ahistor…
View article: Against Organizational Functions
Against Organizational Functions Open
Over the last 20 years, several philosophers have developed a new approach to biological functions, the organizational (or systems-theoretic) approach. This is not a single theory but a family of theories based on the idea that a trait tok…
View article: A Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function
A Generalized Selected Effects Theory of Function Open
I present and defend the generalized selected effects (GSE) theory of function. According to GSE, the function of a trait consists in the activity that contributed to its bearer’s differential reproduction, or differential retention, withi…
View article: Introduction: The biology of psychological altruism
Introduction: The biology of psychological altruism Open
View article: The Birth of Information in the Brain: Edgar Adrian and the Vacuum Tube
The Birth of Information in the Brain: Edgar Adrian and the Vacuum Tube Open
Argument As historian Henning Schmidgen notes, the scientific study of the nervous system would have been “unthinkable” without the industrialization of communication in the 1830s. Historians have investigated extensively the way nerve phy…