What ’ s Transmitted ? Inherited

Sterelny et al. (1996) and Maynard Smith (2000) were the first to argue that genetic information should be understood in terms of teleofunctions, leading to a sense in which genes carry semantic information, with conditions of correctness or satisfaction. In Shea (2007a) I argued that a modified teleosemantic account could be sustained in the face of various objections to these views. The account has two key elements. First, semantic content comes into view only when we see DNA as carrying messages between generations, rather than sending messages during the course of individual development. Second, we need to be clear that there is a consumer of these messages. I argued that there is a real consumer: the process of development takes zygotic DNA as input and produces phenotypic traits as output – bracketing the intricacies of the actual processes of individual development. The message carried by DNA down the generations can only be discerned by considering the way that genes are designed to be consumed.