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29Mathématiques et intuitions: Zermelo et Poincaré face à la théorie axiomatique des ensembles et l'axiome du choixPhilosophia Scientiae 5 (2): 51-87. 2001.
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6L'opposition entre Carnap et Quine sur la distinction conventionnel-empiriquePhilosophia Scientiae 1 (3): 91-106. 1996.
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4Ce qu'explique une explication fonctionnelle, le cas exemplaire des bio-artefactsIn Jean Gayon & Armand de Ricqlès (eds.), Les fonctions: des organismes aux artefacts, Presses Universitaires De France. pp. 377--391. 2010.
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4Fonctions et téléologie naturelleLes Cahiers Philosophiques de Strasbourg 28 175-206. 2010.On attribue typiquement aux organes des fonctions. La fonction des yeux est de voir, celle du cœur est de faire circuler le sang, celle des reins est de filtrer le sang, et ainsi de suite. On attribue aussi des fonctions à des parties d’organe – la fonction des valves auriculo-ventriculaires est d’empêcher le sang de refluer dans les oreillettes lorsque les ventricules se contractent – ou à des traits biologiques – chez de nombreuses espèces d’oiseaux, la couleur vive du plumage des mâles a p...
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59Function and ProbabilityTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 10 (1): 66-78. 2006.The existence of dysfunctions precludes the possibility of identifying the function to do F with the capacity to do F. Nevertheless, we continuously infer capacities from functions. For this and other reasons stated in the first part of this article, I propose a new theory of functions (of the etiological sort), applying to organisms as well as to artefacts, in which to have some determinate probability P to do F (i.e. a probabilistic capacity to do F) is a necessary condition for having the fun…Read more
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78Artifacts and organisms: A case for a new etiological theory of functionsIn Philippe Huneman (ed.), Functions: Selection and Mechanisms, Springer. pp. 185--211. 2007.Most philosophers adopt an etiological conception of functions, but not one that uniformly explains the functions attributed to material entities irrespective of whether they are natural or man-made. Here, I investigate the widespread idea that a combination of the two current etiological theories, SEL and INT, can offer a satisfactory account of the proper functions of both organisms and artifacts.. Making explicit what a realist theory of function supposes, I first show that SEL offers a reali…Read more
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How biological, cultural, and intended functions combineIn Ulrich Krohs & Peter Kroes (eds.), Functions in Biological and Artificial Worlds: Comparative Philosophical Perspectives, Mit Press. 2009.
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Constitution d'Épistémologies Évolutionnistes de Carnap À Popper Et de Wittgenstein À ToulminA.N.R.T. Université de Lille Iii. 1989.
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29To what do "natural selection" and "genetic drift" refer? To causes, as is usually thought? Or to mere statistical effects? The question arises because assessing causes faces specific difficulties when stochastic processes are concerned. In this paper, I establish that a central anti-causalist argument from Matthen and Ariew (2002) does not work, because selection doesn't depend on chance (or unknown factors) in the manner that current analogies with games of chance suggest. I then explain how a…Read more
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48Do we need two notions of natural kind to account for the history of “jade”?Synthese 195 (4): 1459-1486. 2018.We need to distinguish two sorts of natural kinds, scientific and common NKs, because the notion of NK, which has to satisfy demands at three different levels—ontological, semantic and epistemological—, is subject to two incompatible sets of constraints. In order to prove this, I focus on the much-discussed case of jade. In the first part of the paper, I show that the current accounts are unsatisfactory because they are inconsistent. In the process, I explain why LaPorte’s analysis of “jade” as …Read more