PCB-4674 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Evolution, Mendelian Inheritance, Theodosius Dobzhansky
Document Summary
Ultimate causation: questions that examine why things exist. These questions poke at the ultimate scientific explanation for things. Why does hiv kill people: because people with hiv get opportunistic infections, because hiv destroys the immune system. Number 1 is a proximal cause- the event immediately responsible for death. Number 2 is an ultimate cause- the reason the opportunistic infections are able to get started. Why questions go further and further back to ultimately find the underlying reasons for evolution. Supernatural claims about god cannot be refuted because no one knows for sure if there is a god, or his motivations. There is on material evidence of this at all and so it cannot be considered a scientific question. We have various viewpoints and our position on the nature of the world dictates which one we follow to be true. Theodosius dobzhansky nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.