Proximate and ultimate causes: how come? and what for? [Book Review]
Biology and Philosophy 28 (5):781-786 (2013)
| Abstract |
Proximate and ultimate causes in evolutionary biology have come to conflate two distinctions. The first is a distinction between immediate and historical causes. The second is between explanations of mechanism and adaptive function. Mayr emphasized the first distinction but many evolutionary biologists use proximate and ultimate causes to refer to the second. I recommend that ‘ultimate cause’ be abandoned as ambiguous
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| Keywords | Proximate cause Ultimate cause Efficient cause Final cause Intentionality Adaptation Natural selection |
| Categories | (categorize this paper) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10539-013-9369-z |
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References found in this work BETA
More on How and Why: Cause and Effect in Biology Revisited.Kevin N. Laland, John Odling-Smee, William Hoppitt & Tobias Uller - 2012 - Biology and Philosophy 28 (5):719-745.
The Proximate/Ultimate Distinction in the Multiple Careers of Ernst Mayr.John Beatty - 1994 - Biology and Philosophy 9 (3):333-356.
Paradox and Persuasion: Negotiating the Place of Molecular Evolution Within Evolutionary Biology. [REVIEW]Michael R. Dietrich - 1998 - Journal of the History of Biology 31 (1):85 - 111.
Reciprocal Causation and the Proximate–Ultimate Distinction.T. E. Dickins & R. A. Barton - 2013 - Biology and Philosophy 28 (5):747-756.
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Citations of this work BETA
The Proximate–Ultimate Distinction and Evolutionary Developmental Biology: Causal Irrelevance Versus Explanatory Abstraction.Massimo Pigliucci & Raphael Scholl - 2015 - Biology and Philosophy 30 (5):653-670.
Measuring the Unmeasurable.Stefan L. K. Gruijters & Bram P. I. Fleuren - 2018 - Human Nature 29 (1):33-44.
Tinbergen’s Four Questions and the Debate Between Scientific Realism and Selectionism.Kok Yong Lee - 2021 - Synthese 199 (5-6):12643-12661.
Causality, Teleology, and Thought Experiments in Biology.Marco Buzzoni - 2015 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 46 (2):279-299.
Mayr and Tinbergen: Disentangling and Integrating.Brandon A. Conley - 2020 - Biology and Philosophy 35 (1):4.
View all 13 citations / Add more citations
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