Reference no: EM131716029

Evolutionary explanations for behavior make some people uncomfortable because we like to think that we do things because we want to, or because they're good, etc.

To think that these two views are in conflict with each other is to confuse proximate and ultimate causes.

If you look at a chain of events that leads to an action, proximate causes are close and ultimate causes are all the way back at the beginning of the chain. In biology, "proximate and ultimate explanations also differ in the time scale over which they act. Proximate explanations focus on things that occur during the life of an individual. Ultimate explanations focus on things that occur in populations over many generations," (Hannam & Rutowski, 2015).

In the TED Talk below, philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett provides a few examples of proximate and ultimate explanations for certain human preferences. For example, we like apples because they are sweet (proximate), and we like sweet things because we have evolved to prefer foods that are calorically dense (ultimate).

Question: Watch the video. What are your thoughts? Generate your own example of a human behavior or preference for which you can provide both proximate and ultimate explanations. (Before posting, read below to make sure that no one else has already used this example)

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