Biological Interests, Normative Functions, and Synthetic Biology

TY - JOUR

T1 - Biological Interests, Normative Functions, and Synthetic Biology

AU - Holm, Sune Hannibal

PY - 2012/12

Y1 - 2012/12

N2 - In this paper, I discuss the aetiological account of biological interests, developed by Varner (1998), in the context of artefactual organisms envisioned by current research in synthetic biology. In "Sections 2-5", I present Varner's theory and criticise it for being incapable of ascribing non-derivative interests to artefactual organisms due to their lack of a history of natural selection. In "Sections 6-7", I develop a new alternative to Varner's account, building on the organisational theory of biological teleology and function. I argue that the organisational account of biological interest is superior to Varner's aetiological account because it (i) can accommodate both artefactual and naturally evolved organisms, (ii) provides a nonarbitrary and practical way of determining biological interests, (iii) supports the claim that organisms have interests in a sense in which artefacts do not, and (iv) avoids the possibility of there being a conflict between what an organismic part is supposed to do and what is in the interest of the organism.

AB - In this paper, I discuss the aetiological account of biological interests, developed by Varner (1998), in the context of artefactual organisms envisioned by current research in synthetic biology. In "Sections 2-5", I present Varner's theory and criticise it for being incapable of ascribing non-derivative interests to artefactual organisms due to their lack of a history of natural selection. In "Sections 6-7", I develop a new alternative to Varner's account, building on the organisational theory of biological teleology and function. I argue that the organisational account of biological interest is superior to Varner's aetiological account because it (i) can accommodate both artefactual and naturally evolved organisms, (ii) provides a nonarbitrary and practical way of determining biological interests, (iii) supports the claim that organisms have interests in a sense in which artefacts do not, and (iv) avoids the possibility of there being a conflict between what an organismic part is supposed to do and what is in the interest of the organism.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - biologiens filosofi

KW - bioetik

U2 - 10.1007/s13347-012-0075-6

DO - 10.1007/s13347-012-0075-6

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2210-5433

VL - 25

SP - 525

EP - 541

JO - Philosophy & Technology

JF - Philosophy & Technology

IS - 4

ER -