Although a few of the loci associated with plasma cholesterol levels in the GWASs [ 5- 7] have known functions, many of the variants showing association lack a functional explanation.
I argue that this is a problem not only for Nagelian deductive-nomological models but also for etiological models of functional explanation.
Cohen argued that those supposed inconsistencies could be avoided if Marx's explanatory theses were taken to be instances of functional explanation.
Their analysis indicates that most moral principles that seem appealing, upon examination, have a functional explanation, one that does not justify their being accorded independent weight in the assessment of public policy.
When he does stumble into a functional explanation of the bladder, or the workings of the inner ear, he stops himself within a paragraph and veers instead on to some gloriously obscure anecdote about Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, or the mythography of Marina Warner.
This gives rise to both integrative and antagonistic effects which are in agreement with those observed in psychophysical experiments with humans, providing a functional explanation for effects of motion repulsion.
In the third camp was the Norwegian philosopher and political scientist Jon Elster, who argued in a series of papers and in his book, Making Sense of Marx (1985), against Cohen's deployment of functional explanation.
Elster did not oppose the use of functional explanation in principle but rather argued that, to be legitimate, it had to be underpinned by more conventional causal or intentional modes of explanation.
Although Cohen disputed Elster's view that functional explanation was inadmissible in the absence of supporting foundations, other analytical Marxists were keen to supply them for other areas of Marxian theory.
It also points to a possible functional explanation for the S-cone loss.
For we must ask whether functional explanation is a coherent methodological device.
