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Cause and Effect in Biology Revisited: Is Mayr's Proximate-Ultimate Dichotomy Still Useful?

Date

Authors

Laland, Kevin

Odling-Smee, John

Hoppitt, William

Uller, Tobias

Sterelny, Kim

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Abstract

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

Keywords

Keywords: developmental biology; environmental factor; natural selection; numerical model; paradigm shift; stabilization; biological model; bird; cooperation; cultural anthropology; ecological niche; evolutionary developmental biology; mate choice; Mayr proximate u

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1885/54179

Collections

ANU Research Publications

Source

Science

Type

Journal article

DOI

10.1126/science.1210879

Restricted until

2037-12-31

Downloads

File

Description

01_Laland_Cause_and_Effect_in_Biology_2011.pdf (537.36 KB)