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Introduction: In Search of a New Paradigm for the Development of Evolutionary Biology

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Natural Selection

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development ((EBNPD,volume 3))

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Abstract

This Introduction raises a number of interpretative difficulties facing the standard view of the development of evolutionary biology. It challenges the central tenet of this view, the claim that the field has largely been organized around a fundamental divide, comprising, on the one hand, theories focusing on a strong selective approach and, on the other, theories embracing a weak selective one. It is argued that the main historiographic labels—Darwinism, Darwinian Revolution, Eclipse of Darwinism, Modern Synthesis, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, Non-Darwinian Synthesis—are increasingly less clearly supported by historical, epistemological, theoretical, and empirical analyses. The co-optation of historians and philosophers under the rhetorical discourses of a limited number of influential evolutionists has, apparently, played a key role in the persistence of a static and uncritical historiography. This Introduction calls for a new and more consistent paradigm that would make sense of the overall development of evolutionary biology, one based on a realignment of the alliance between all partners pursuing research in this area.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The word “paradigm” in this chapter is used in its ordinary and non-technical sense.

  2. 2.

    Of course, the opinions expressed here are only mine. The readers are urged to review all the chapters contained in this volume and judge for themselves. It would be impossible for me to do justice here to the many stimulating insights each author brings to it.

  3. 3.

    I have argued elsewhere that the time has perhaps come to dispose of the label “Darwinism” altogether (Delisle 2017a: 157). It seems to me that this move is warranted, if only because at our current state of understanding, such a label conflates major issues rather than revealing them. For a similar conclusion, but based on a different argument, see also the comment of Mark Adams (Chap. 8, footnote 14).

  4. 4.

    For years I was myself entirely co-opted under labels, such as “Darwinian Revolution” and “Modern Synthesis”. See also a somewhat similar admission by Mark Adams (Chap. 8).

  5. 5.

    The co-optation of historians and philosophers by evolutionary biologists promoting the “Modern Synthesis” constitutes an essential research topic for future “critical” historians and philosophers.

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Acknowledgements

I thank James Tierney (Yale University) for assistance in improving the quality of my English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Liberal Education, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Richard G. Delisle

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Richard G. Delisle

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Correspondence to Richard G. Delisle .

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  1. School of Liberal Education and Department of Philosophy, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Richard G. Delisle

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Delisle, R.G. (2021). Introduction: In Search of a New Paradigm for the Development of Evolutionary Biology. In: Delisle, R.G. (eds) Natural Selection. Evolutionary Biology – New Perspectives on Its Development, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65536-5_1

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