Fang, Wei
(2018)
The Case for Multiple Realization in Biology.
[Preprint]
Abstract
Polger and Shapiro argue that their official recipe, a criterion for
judging when the phenomenon of multiple realization (MR) exists, renders MR
less widespread than its proponents have assumed. I argue that, although Polger
and Shapiro’s criterion is a useful contribution, they arrive at their conclusion too
hastily. Contrary to Polger and Shapiro, I claim that the phenomenon of multiple
realization in the biological world, judged by their criterion, is not as scarce as
they suggest. To show this, an updated official recipe, namely a multiple
mechanistic realization thesis (MMRT), integrating Polger and Shapiro’s criterion
with a compositional conception of realization, is developed. Then, three
examples of varied kinds are examined, showing that cases of MR are not so hard
to find in the biological world.
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