Publication Date:
2011-12-17
Description:
Fifty years ago, Ernst Mayr published a hugely influential paper on the nature of causation in biology, in which he distinguished between proximate and ultimate causes. Mayr equated proximate causation with immediate factors (for example, physiology) and ultimate causation with evolutionary explanations (for example, natural selection). He argued that proximate and ultimate causes addressed different questions and were not alternatives. Mayr's account of causation remains widely accepted today, with both positive and negative ramifications. Several current debates in biology (for example, over evolution and development, niche construction, cooperation, and the evolution of language) are linked by a common axis of acceptance/rejection of Mayr's model of causation. We argue that Mayr's formulation has acted to stabilize the dominant evolutionary paradigm against change but may now hamper progress in the biological sciences.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Laland, Kevin N -- Sterelny, Kim -- Odling-Smee, John -- Hoppitt, William -- Uller, Tobias -- 232823/European Research Council/International -- BB/D015812/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 Dec 16;334(6062):1512-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1210879.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9TS, UK. knl1@st-andrews.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22174243" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Biology/history
;
Causality
;
Female
;
History, 20th Century
;
Humans
;
Male
;
*Models, Biological
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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