Cause and effect in biology, culture, and the (extended) mind: a coevolutionary approach

This paper provides a philosophical discussion of the notion of causality in co-evolutionary contexts pertaining to biology, psychology and the behavioral sciences and the social and cultural sciences. While Ernst Mayr classically distinguishes between proximate and ultimate causes in evolution, this neat distinction has become the focus of much debate in light of some recent developments in the domain of theoretical biology such as epigenetics, evo-devo, and niche construction theory. The paper examines how the functioning or causal processes is depicted in these milieus as well as a number of psychological and sociocultural contexts with a view on the philosophical implications for our understanding of the logic of the sciences and our ontological framework of the metaphysics of the world. I argue that the epistemic consequence of the very variegated way in which complex networks of causal channels interact in real biological and cultural systems should give us alarm against monocausal schemas. There is also a major ontological implication to my discussion and it points out to the irreducible plurality of the world outside.