McClamrock: Functional Analysis and Etiology

McClamrock: Functional Analysis and Etiology Cummins [1982] argues that etiological considerations are not only insufficient but irrelevant for the determination of function. I argue that his claim of irrelevance rests on a misrepresentation of the use of functions in evolutionary explanations. I go on to suggest how accepting an etiological constraint on functional analysis might help resolve some problems involving the use of functional explanations.