Integrating proximate and ultimate causation: Just one more go!

摘要

Parting between proximate and ultimate causation is questioned. Mayr elaborated this dual scheme to distinguish the making up and functioning of the phenotype from the genesis of the genotype. But evolution cannot reduce to a uniformitarian progress resulting from the regular action of natural selection, it also includes such processes as random sorting and species selection, which occur at different time scales. In addition, the epigenetic processes responsible for the development of organisms generate multiple constraints that direct the action of selection. If we want to integrate mechanistic and adaptive functions, we should drop the very formulation that perpetuates their separation.