In discussions of
reasoning or
causality, a proximal
factor is one that is
close to the phenomenon you're studying, as opposed to a
distal cause, which is
conceptually or
temporally
distant. You might ask "why is there that stupid node about invisible husbands?" A natural answer would be "because someone thought it would be amusing," but a more
proximal cause would be "because there was some text in the
writeup box, and the author clicked
stubmit."
Proximal causes are very closely related to their effects. As a cause becomes more proximal, it approaches
indefeasibility under the laws of
physics. However, it also tells us less and less about the larger
context or related matters of
interest.