Abstract: This talk develops the argument that because biological systems are functionally individuated, whereas physical systems are not, biological tokens cannot be identified with physical tokens. Consequently, it is argued that realism about biological function is incompatible with those versions of physicalism committed to the token identity thesis – in particular, token physicalism and sufficiently strong formulations of supervenience physicalism. After reviewing different types of physicalism, the problem occasioned by functional individuation in biology is explained. The token identity thesis is then evaluated in terms of examples from the life sciences, leading to the conclusion that the thesis is implausible.

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