We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Defining Dysfunction: Natural Selection, Design, and Drawing a Line.
- Authors
Schwartz, Peter H.
- Abstract
Accounts of the concepts of function and dysfunction have not adequately explained what factors determine the line between low-normal function and dysfunction. I call the challenge of doing so the line-drawing problem. Previous approaches emphasize facts involving the action of natural selection (Wakefield 1992a, 1999a, 1999b) or the statistical distribution of levels of functioning in the current population (Boorse 1977, 1997). I point out limitations of these two approaches and present a solution to the line-drawing problem that builds on the second one.
- Subjects
NATURAL selection; DISTRIBUTION (Probability theory); TELEOLOGY; BIOLOGICAL variation; MEDICAL function tests; DIAGNOSIS
- Publication
Philosophy of Science, 2007, Vol 74, Issue 3, p364
- ISSN
0031-8248
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1086/521970