caa a22 4500 465803059 CHVBK 20180323112057.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19901001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF02207379 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF02207379 Francis Richard Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, 97403, Eugene, OR, USA aut Causes, proximate and ultimate [Elektronische Daten] [Richard Francis] Within evolutionary biology a distinction is frequently made between proximate and ultimate causes. One apparently plausible interpretation of this dichotomy is that proximate causes concern processes occurring during the life of an organism while ultimate causes refer to those processes (particularly natural selection) that shaped its genome. But "ultimate causes” are not sought through historical investigations of an organisms lineage. Rather, explanations referring to ultimate causes typically emerge from functional analyses. But these functional analyses do not identify causes of any kind, much less ultimate ones. So-called "ultimate explanations” are not about causes in any sense resembling those of proximate explanations. The attitude, implicit in the term "ultimate cause”, that these functional analyses are somehow superordinate to those involving "proximate causes” is unfounded. "Ultimate causes” are neither ultimate nor causes. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990 Proximate cause nationallicence ultimate cause nationallicence function nationallicence functionalism nationallicence structuralism nationallicence adaptation nationallicence sociobiology nationallicence behavioral ecology nationallicence Biology and Philosophy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5/4(1990-10-01), 401-415 0169-3867 5:4<401 1990 5 10539 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207379 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207379 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Francis Richard Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, 97403, Eugene, OR, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Biology and Philosophy Kluwer Academic Publishers 5/4(1990-10-01), 401-415 0169-3867 5:4<401 1990 5 10539 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer