The Ultimate/Proximate Distinction in Recent Accounts of Human Cooperation

Abstract

The behavioral sciences are characterized by a plurality of distinct forms of explanation. Ernst Mayrs (1961) famous distinction between ultimate and proximate explanations is sometimes invoked to make sense of part of this plurality. Whereas evolutionary theorizing explains human behavior by appealing to evolutionary forces working in the past (natural selection being the notable example), proximate explanations explain it by appealing to current cognitive and psychological mechanisms. Despite the widespread use of this distinction by both philosophers and scientists, its precise content remains unclear. Those philosophers who have examined the distinction have not reached a consensus on the kind of explanations that ultimate explanations are, nor how they relate to proximate explanations (Ariew 2003, Beatty 1 994,