Abstract
According to my experience, the two most common kinds of questions biology students ask when encountering a new structure or process are the following: What is the cause? What is the purpose (or function)? An answer to the two questions is often considered tantamount to an understanding of the phenomena. In this chapter, I shall examine the notion of “cause” and “causality,” whereas purpose and function shall be discussed in the next chapter.
“The principle of causality is never strictly true because it neglects two ever-present features: spontaneity (or self-determination) and chance”
(Bunge 1979a, p. XXII)
“The reason why physics has ceased to look for causes is that, in fact, there are no such things. The law of causality, I believe, ... is a relic of a bygone age.”
(Bertrand Russell 1913, p. 1)
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Sattler, R. (1986). Causality, Determinism, and Free Will. In: Biophilosophy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71141-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71141-1_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-16418-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-71141-1
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