In order for irreducible complexity to be a fatal difficulty for
darwinian processes, the system in question must be non-functional in
the absence of any of the components, and those components themselves
must have no independent adaptive function, so that they are not just
lying about waiting the opportunity to come together into the new
functioning system. In short, the components should not be exaptive (or
pre-adaptive, in Darwin's terms).
But if the floor-stapled mousetrap is admitted to be a functioning
mousetrap, and if functional mousetraps are irreducibly complex, then
given that the floor was generated for some different purpose entirely,
that all constitutes an admission that irreducible complexity can arise
in cases where at least *some* of the components *are* exaptive. If so,
that is certainly a legitimate point worth making.
Of course, one could accept the possibility of preadaptation of some
components of a system, and still maintain that the system is in some
extended sense irreducibly complex so long as there is *at least one*
component which cannot be a result of preadaptation, but that is a bit
different than the original sort of case - at least, as I understood it.
Del
Del Ratzsch voice: (616) 957-6415
Philosophy Department (616) 451-4301 (home)
Calvin College e-mail: dratzsch@calvin.edu
Grand Rapids, MI 49546 fax: (616) 957-8551