Organisms and Artifacts : Design in Nature and Elsewhere

In Organisms and Artifacts, Tim Lewens investigates the analogicaluse of the language of design in evolutionary biology. Uniquely among the natural sciences, biologyuses descriptive and explanatory terms more suited to artifacts than organisms. When biologistsdiscuss, for example, the purpose of the panda's thumb and look for functional explanations fororganic traits, they borrow from a vocabulary of intelligent design that Darwin's findings couldhave made irrelevant over a hundred years ago. Lewens argues that examining the analogy between theprocesses of evolution and the processes by which artifacts are created -- looking at organisms asanalogical artifacts -- sheds light on explanations of the form of both organic and inorganicobjects. He argues further that understanding the analogy is important for what it can tell us notonly about biology but about technology and philosophy.In the course of hisargument, Lewens discusses issues of interest to philosophers of biology, biologists, philosophersof mind, and students of technology. These issues include the pitfalls of the design-based thinkingof adaptationism, the possible conflict between selection explanations and developmentalexplanations, a proposed explanation of biological function, and prospects for an informativeevolutionary model of technological change. Emerging from these discussions is an explanation of theuse of the vocabulary of intelligence and intention in biology that does not itself draw on theideas of intelligent design, which will be of interest in the ongoing debate over intelligent designcreationism.