Online-Presentation by Alan C. Love on Monday, 9 September 2024, 20:00 CEST (Berlin Time)
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Abstract: The concept of function has received extensive attention from philosophers of biology and yet continues to be a controversial topic. In biomimetics, “function” can serve as a bridge between the life sciences and engineering attempts to solve human problems by mimicking “how nature does it.” Much of biomimetics has assumed a trait-oriented conception of function, looking to features or properties of organisms for inspiration (e.g., airplane wing structure from bird wings or dry adhesives like Velcro from plant seed burrs). However, other biomimetic approaches focus on system design, either organismal (e.g., soft robot locomotion) or ecological (resource recycling and reuse), where the pertinent notion is functioning. In both cases, the presumption is that the function of a biological trait or the functioning of a natural system is always an appropriate reference standard because of millions of years of evolutionary optimization due to natural selection (i.e., a form of pan-adaptationism).
Scrutiny of “function” and “functioning” provides an entry point into evaluating the overall merits of biomimicry. First, I argue that the justificatory appeal to evolutionary optimization is not warranted, and this means other concepts of function besides the selected-effects account should be considered. Second, appeals to notions like autopoiesis to account for the self-producing or self-maintaining phenomenology of functioning associated with living systems (possibly even the entire Earth) remain largely theoretical and beyond empirical testing. Third, in practice, empirical assessments of function and functioning in biology are often made via direct comparison with engineered non-living systems (e.g., in biomechanics where bones are considered levers). Although these points are relatively critical, they are mostly problematic for biomimetics understood as an overarching philosophy with a distinctive ontology or as a single coherent field of research with central principles. When interpreted in a more deflationary manner (e.g., features and systems of the living world sometimes provide useful engineering inspiration), biomimetics is on more solid ground and ultimately can leverage these criticisms as resources.
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Time: Sep 9, 2024 20:00 Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
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