Functions: From Organisms to Artefacts

Introduction to the English version*.- Original introduction.- PART 1 - CONCEPTUAL AND HISTORICAL PROBLEMS. Section 1. Origins of functional discourse in the life sciences Chapter 1 - Biological Function: A Brief Slice of History (James G. Lennox).- Chapter 2 - The Structure-Function Relationship in the Advent of Biology (François Duchesneau).- Chapter 3 - Tissues, Properties, Functions: The Term Function in French Biology in the Early 19th Century (Laurent Clauzade).- Chapter 4 - « Design », History of the Word and the Concept: Natural Sciences, History, Theology, Aesthetics (Daniel Becquemont).- Chapter 5 - Function and Purpose: Review of the "Written Symposium" (1976-1984) Organized by the Institut de la Méthode of the Ferdinand Gonseth Association (Pierre-Marie Pouget) *.- Section 2. Function, selection, adaptation Chapter 6 - How are Traits Typed for the Purpose of Ascribing Functions to Them? (Karen Neander).- Chapter 7 - Attribution of Functions and Levels of Organization in Biology (Jean Gayon).- Chapter 8 - Function and Adaptation: A Conceptual Demarcation, Instigated by Borderline Cases for Etiological Theory (Philippe Huneman).- Chapter 9 - Function, Adaptation, and Design in Biology (Gustavo Caponi)*.- Chapter 10 - Ecological Functions, External Teleology and Between-Species Beneficial Relations (or How Aristotle and Kant Can Help us Understand Functions in Ecology) (Antoine C. Dussault)*.- PART 2 - FUNCTIONS IN BIOLOGY. Section 3. Structures and functions in morphology and paleontology Chapter 11 - The Problem of Complex Causality at the Origin of the Structure-Function Relationship 1/ Generality, 2/ The Case Of Bone Tissue (Armand de Ricqlès and Jorge Cubo).- Chapter 12 - Structure, Function and Evolution of the Middle Ear of Extant and Extinct Vertebrates: Paleobiological and Phylogenetic Interpretations (Michel Laurin).- Section 4. Attributions of function in experimental biology Chapter 13 - The

Jean Gayon

Jean Gayon's works have developed in two directions: philosophy and the history of life sciences. His historical work focuses mainly on the 19th and 20th centuries: population biology and biometrics, the theory of evolution, genetics. His philosophical work has itself developed in the following directions: (1) The conceptual clarification of a number of issues commonly addressed by what has been called since the 1970s the philosophy of biology; for example: the concept of species, the structure of the theory of evolution, units of selection, chance. (2) The analysis of some of the typical figures of "biological philosophies" of the 19th and 20th centuries (Bernard, Nietzsche, Pearson, Canguilhem, Dagognet, Sober, Grene, etc.). (3) An involvement in some ethical-political issues related to life and health sciences: genetic improvement of humanity, eugenics, human races.


In addition to this work on the history and philosophy of biology, Jean Gayonalso has contributions on issues relating to the general philosophy of science and its history.

 

Armand de Ricqlès

Armand de Ricqlès is a French paleobiologist best known for his work in bone histology and its implications for the growth and thermometabolism of dinosaurs. He worked in the University of Paris (and later Université paris VII) from 1961 till 1995, when he was nominated to a chair of Historical and Evolutionary Biology at the Collège de France. He officially retired in 2010, but he continues publishing.