Böcker av Peter McLaughlin

Today, there is no longer any job security for anyone. Gone are the days when the average employee stayed with the same company for 20 -30 years and upon retirement, received a gold watch and a pension. Nowadays, the average employee changes jobs as many as 12 times and even changes career paths an average of 3 to 7 times in a lifetime. In an ever-changing business world where budget cuts, outsourcing, and other industry developments are becoming the norm, it is imperative to be ready for change and know what steps are necessary to make that change and recreate yourself.

This 2001 book offers an examination of functional explanation as it is used in biology and the social sciences, and focuses on the kinds of philosophical presuppositions that such explanations carry with them. It tackles such questions as: why are some things explained functionally while others are not? What do the functional explanations tell us about how these objects are conceptualized? What do we commit ourselves to when we give and take functional explanations in the life sciences and the social sciences? McLaughlin gives a critical review of the debate on functional explanation in the philosophy of science. He discusses the history of the philosophical question of teleology, and provides a comprehensive review of the post-war literature on functional explanation. What Functions Explain provides a sophisticated and detailed Aristotelian analysis of our concept of natural functions, and offers a positive contribution to the ongoing debate on the topic.