ABSTRACT
The most striking thing about animals and plants, separating them from rocks and lakes and so forth, is that in some sense they work. Animals and plants-‘organisms’—have an ongoing, more-orless independent existence, drawing usable energy from the surroundings, and in some way or ways reproducing their kind, so that even if a particular instance of an organism is destroyed, there are others. Organisms do not survive and reproduce just by chance. They do so because their various features contribute to their possessors’ success. Eyes help mammals to see. Fins help fish to swim. Leaves help plants to attract usable energy. Seeing, swimming, converting sunlight, these are all things that organisms do to keep going. Thus you can think of such processes and the features which make such processes possible, in terms of the aim of the well-being of organisms. Or, since the immediate ends of organisms (qua organisms) are survival and reproduction, you can think of processes and features in terms of their roles in serving the end of survival and reproduction. Thus, in dealing with the organic world, you can ask what ‘function’ or ‘purpose’ a part or process plays, meaning how does it serve the end of survival and reproduction. Since rocks and lakes do not survive and reproduce (as self-subsisting, energy using entities) you do not ask about the ends served by their parts.
