Full Idea
If the only thing that interested us about the heart was that it made a thumping noise, we would have a completely different conception of its "functioning", and correspondingly of heart disease.
Gist of Idea
The function of a heart depends on what we want it to do
Source
John Searle (The Rediscovery of the Mind [1992], Ch.10.III)
Book Reference
Searle,John R.: 'The Rediscovery of the Mind' [MIT 1999], p.238
A Reaction
Ditto if we were only interested in ears as support for earrings, but that would seriously miss the point of ears. The intrinsic function is the reason for its existence.