Function (biology)

A biological function is the reason some object or process occurred in a system that evolved through a process of natural selection. That reason is typically that it achieves some result, such as that chlorophyll helps to capture the energy of sunlight in photosynthesis, and hence the organism is more likely to survive and reproduce.

Pre-evolutionary biology

In physiology, a function is an activity or process carried out by a system in an organism, such as sensation or locomotion in an animal.[1] This concept of function as opposed to form (respectively Aristotle's ergon and morphê[2]) was central in biological explanations in classical antiquity, and in more modern times formed part of the Cuvier–Geoffroy debate.[3][4][5]

In evolutionary biology

Adaptation

A functional characteristic is known in evolutionary biology as an adaptation, and the research strategy for investigating whether a character is adaptive is known as adaptationism. Although an assumption that a character is functional may be fruitful as a research method, some characteristics of organisms are non-functional, and may simply be spandrels, side effects of functional systems.[6]

Natural selection

Chlorophyll molecule has a function in photosynthesis.

From the point of view of natural selection, biological functions exist to contribute to fitness, increasing the chance that an organism will survive to reproduce.[7][8] For example, the function of chlorophyll in a plant is to capture the energy of sunlight for photosynthesis,[9] which contributes to evolutionary success.

Teleology

Function is not the same as purpose in the teleological sense. In the philosophy of biology, evolution is a blind process which has no 'goal' for the future. For example, a tree does not grow flowers for any purpose, but does so simply because it has evolved to do so. To say 'a tree grows flowers to attract pollinators' would be incorrect if the 'to' implies purpose. A function describes what something does, not what its 'purpose' is. However, teleological language is often used by biologists as a shorthand way of describing function, even though its applicability is disputed.[10]

One of four causes

The ethologist Niko Tinbergen named four questions, based on Aristotle's Four Causes,[11] that a biologist could ask to help explain a behaviour, though they have been generalised to a wider scope. 1) Mechanism: What mechanisms cause the animal to behave as it does? 2) Ontogeny: What developmental mechanisms in the animal's embryology (and its youth, if it learns) created the structures that cause the behaviour? 3) Function/adaptation: What is the evolutionary function of the behaviour? 4) Evolution: What is the phylogeny of the behaviour, or in other words, when did it first appear in the evolutionary history of the animal? The questions are interdependent, so that, for example, adaptive function is constrained by embryonic development.[12][13][14][15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Fletcher, John (1837). "On the functions of organized beings, and their arrangement". In: Rudiments of physiology. Part 2. On life, as manifested in irritation. Edinburgh: John Carfrae & Son. pp. 1-15. link.
  2. ↑ Tipton, Jason A. 2014. Philosophical Biology in Aristotle’s Parts of Animals. Boston: Springer, p. 33, link
  3. ↑ Edward Stewart Russel (1916). Form and Function: A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology. London: J. Murray. link.
  4. ↑ Asma, S. T. (1996). Following form and function: A philosophical archaeology of life science. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. link.
  5. ↑ Arber, Agnes (1950). The Natural Philosophy of Plant Form. Cambridge University Press, link. (Review: link.)
  6. ↑ "Understanding Evolution: Qualifying as an adaptation". University of California at Berkeley. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Zimmer, Carl; Emlen, Douglas J. (2013). Evolution: Making Sense of Life (1st ed.). Roberts and Company Publishers. ISBN 978-1-936221-17-2.
  8. ↑ Hall, Brian K.; Hallgrímsson, Benedikt (2008). Strickberger's Evolution (4th ed.). Jones and Bartlett. pp. 4–6.
  9. ↑ Carter, J. Stein (1996). "Photosynthesis". University of Cincinnati.
  10. ↑ "Teleological Notions in Biology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 18 May 2003. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  11. ↑ Hladký, V. & Havlíček, J. (2013). Was Tinbergen an Aristotelian? Comparison of Tinbergen's Four Whys and Aristotle's Four Causes. Human Ethology Bulletin, 28(4), 3-11
  12. ↑ "Sociobiology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 11 November 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Tinbergen, N. (1963). "On aims and methods of Ethology". Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie. 20 (4): 410–433. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1963.tb01161.x.
  14. ↑ Diagram on The Four Areas of Biology
  15. ↑ Further Diagrams on The Four Areas of Biology (Documents No. 5, 6 and 7 in English)
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