Lexicon of Arguments

 

I 101
Cause/Bbiology: it can be difficult or even impossible to find the exact the cause for an interaction of complex systems.
>Causality, >Effect.
I 102
Strict causality: can usually be determined by considering the selected option at each step of the action chain in retrospect. In retrospect, even randomly chosen components can be regarded as causal.
>Causal explanation.
I 102
Causes/Mayr: Every phenomenon is the result of two causes, an indirect one ("why, genetic program") and an direct one (functional, "how").
I 103
Cause: in the inanimate world there is only one kind of causes, that of the natural laws (often in combination with random processes).
>Laws of nature, >Random, >Necessity, >Initial conditions.
I 162
Cause: E.g. "Indirect cause": choice of a moderate time of year for the rearing of the offspring.
Indirect: abundance of food direct cause: length of days.
I 163
Cause/Paul Weiss/Mayr: all biological systems have two sides: they are both causal mechanisms and products of evolution.⁽¹⁾
165
Cause/Biology: direct: affect the phenotype: morphology and behavior, mechanically, here and now, decoding a genetic code discovery by experiments
Indirect: affect the genotype - probabilistic - effective and emerged over long periods of time, emergence and alteration of genetic programs discovery by conclusions from historical representations.
>Terminology/Mayr.

1. P. Weiss (1947). The Place of Physiology in the Biological Sciences. In: Federation Proceedings 6, p. 523-525.