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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Dennett and Dretske both argue that any property systematically correlated with adaptive behavior in evolved organisms must be granted causal status.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Systematic correlation with adaptive behavior can result from epiphenomenal byproducts of selected-for physical properties.
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    • 2.Causal status requires difference-making at the level of physical mechanism, not merely statistical correlation with outcomes.
      ?

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    • 3.Evolution explains property persistence, not causal efficacy; selection pressures are upstream causes, not the properties themselves.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Evolution by natural selection explains why organisms have properties; explanatory indispensability indicates causal relevance.
      ?

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    • 2.If a property's presence vs. absence systematically affects organism fitness, it must be causally efficacious in producing behavior.
      ?

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    • 3.Denying causal status to adaptive properties leads to epiphenomenalism, which contradicts our best science of evolution.
      ?

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