9th Symposium: Have traits evolved to function the way they do because of a past advantage?

Since the 1960s, biologists and philosophers such as Ernest Nagel and Carl Hempel have proposed numerous definitions of the term "function," aiming to capture the role evolution plays in biology. Following Nagel and Hempel, researchers have continuously attempted to specify conditions suitable for predicting the functions of both natural and artificial entities and have incorporated these functions into explanations. In recent years, two predominant viewpoints on the definition and nature of function have emerged among biologists and philosophers as the most feasible. In the 9th specialized symposium, Chengyuan Liu, Yiqing Yang, and Shichun Wang will delve into these issues.