Notes:

Members of the school include Julius Sachs, Jacques Loeb, and Ernest Haeckel.

The origins of the school can be traced back to Descartes.

Proximate causation: explanation by proximate causes reveals how parts of the system work together and in interaction with parts of the environment.

Proximate causes often only answer the "how" question, whereas ultimate causes provide answer to a "why" question. Therefore, proximate causes might be the closest ones but often not the "real causes"


Scientists and philosophers working in this framework tend to reject any concern with either the ancestor causes of the system—in the sense of evolutionary theory—or with the intentions of the designer—in the sense of the divine design theory.