The word function is used in two quite different senses.
Sometimes it suggests a system of vital movements, without
reference to their consequences; at others it expresses the
relation existing between these movements and corresponding
needs of the organism. Thus, we speak of the function of
digestion, of respiration, etc.; but we also say that digestion
has as its function the incorporation into the organism of liquid or
solid substances designed to replenish its losses, that respiration
has for its function the introduction of necessary gases into the
tissues of an animal for the sustainment of life, etc. It is in
the second sense that we shall use the term. To ask what the
function of the division of labor is, is to seek for the need which
it supplies. When we have answered this question, we shall be
able to see if this need is of the same sort as those to which other
rules of conduct respond whose moral character is agreed upon.

We have chosen this term because any other would be inexact
or equivocal. We cannot employ aim or object and speak of the
end of the division of labor because that would presuppose that
the division of labor exists in the light of results which we are go-
ing to determine. The terms, "results" or "effects," would be
no more satisfactory, because they imply no idea of correspond-
ence. On the other hand, the term "role," or "function," has
the great advantage of implying this idea, without prejudging
the question as to how this correspondence is established,
whether it results from an intentional and preconceived adapta-
tion or an aftermath adjustment. What is important for our
purposes is to establish its existence and the elements of its
existence; not to inquire whether there has been a prior pre-

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