Phantom Functions and the Evolutionary Theory of Artefact Proper Function
Phantom Functions and the Evolutionary Theory of Artefact Proper Function
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幻像函数和人工制品本征函数的进化理论
DOI：
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Glenn Parsons
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文献类型：
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作者：
Glenn Parsons
人工制品固有功能的进化理论认为，人工制品的固有功能是解释人工制品类型的过去实例的再现的效果。这个理论有许多来源，但在贝丝普雷斯顿的文章《为什么翅膀像勺子？》中得到了最清晰的阐述。（1998年）。最近，普雷斯顿提出了一个反对的理论，基于“幻影功能”的现象：这些功能是一个人工制品类型无法执行，但显然构成其应有的功能。例如，偏转气能量是风水镜的正确功能，即使没有风水镜能够做到这一点（因为气不存在）。普雷斯顿的结论是，幻影功能的存在驳斥了人工制品固有功能的进化理论。在本文中，进化理论辩护，认为它可以充分考虑幻影功能的情况下。
The evolutionary theory of artefact proper function holds that an artefact’s proper function is that effect which explains the reproduction of past instances of the artefact type. This theory has many sources but received its clearest presentation in Beth Preston’s essay “Why Is a Wing Like a Spoon?” (1998). More recently, Preston has raised an objection to the theory, based on the phenomenon of ‘phantom functions’: these are functions that an artefact type is unable to perform, but which nonetheless apparently constitute its proper function. Deflecting qi energy, for example, is the proper function of feng shui mirrors, even though no feng shui mirror is able to do this (since qi does not exist). Preston concludes that the existence of phantom functions refutes the evolutionary theory of artefact proper function. In this paper, the evolutionary theory is defended, by arguing that it can adequately account for phantom function cases.