From Charles Darwin to the Evolutionary Synthesis: Weak and Diffused Connections Only

Delisle, Richard G.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-69123-7_7

Cited by 20 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…1). However, this is an over-simplistic view of the history, present state and future projections of evolutionary biology as a scientific discipline (see also Delisle 2018;p. 158): history cannot be used to accurately predict the future (see Gaddis 2002) and, as robust historiography of science shows, scientific knowledge does not accumulate in a linear and progressive fashion (e.g., Raj 2013; for a contextualized example in the history of evolutionary biology, see Amundson 2005).…”

Section: The 'Extended Evolutionary Synthesis' (Ees): What Is the Natmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

Fábregas‐Tejeda

Vergara‐Silva

2018

Theory Biosci.

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The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) debate is gaining ground in contemporary evolutionary biology. In parallel, a number of philosophical standpoints have emerged in an attempt to clarify what exactly is represented by the EES. For Massimo Pigliucci, we are in the wake of the newest instantiation of a persisting Kuhnian paradigm; in contrast, Telmo Pievani has contended that the transition to an EES could be best represented as a progressive reformation of a prior Lakatosian scientific research program, with the extension of its Neo-Darwinian core and the addition of a brand-new protective belt of assumptions and auxiliary hypotheses. Here, we argue that those philosophical vantage points are not the only ways to interpret what current proposals to 'extend' the Modern Synthesis-derived 'standard evolutionary theory' (SET) entail in terms of theoretical change in evolutionary biology. We specifically propose the image of the emergent EES as a vast network of models and interweaved representations that, instantiated in diverse practices, are connected and related in multiple ways. Under that assumption, the EES could be articulated around a paraconsistent network of evolutionary theories (including some elements of the SET), as well as models, practices and representation systems of contemporary evolutionary biology, with edges and nodes that change their position and centrality as a consequence of the co-construction and stabilization of facts and historical discussions revolving around the epistemic goals of this area of the life sciences. We then critically examine the purported structure of the EES-published by Laland and collaborators in 2015-in light of our own network-based proposal. Finally, we consider which epistemic units of Evo-Devo are present or still missing from the EES, in preparation for further analyses of the topic of explanatory integration in this conceptual framework.

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Section: The 'Extended Evolutionary Synthesis' (Ees): What Is the Natmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

Fábregas‐Tejeda

Vergara‐Silva

2018

Theory Biosci.

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“…In contemporary works devoted to the history of evolutionism, one can increasingly often find postulates about the necessity of departure from the narrative, according to which Darwinism was a widely accepted theory in the nineteenth-century, and the competing concepts were of a religious or philosophical nature (e.g., Ceccarelli, 2021;Delisle, 2017;Ochoa, 2021). A historiography based on such a simple dichotomy distorts history by not fully reflecting the discussions that took place in the context of post-Darwinian biology and philosophy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary Theism of Henryk Levittoux in Polish and International Context

Wagner

2021

FetR

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Henryk Levittoux (1822-1879) is currently best known as the model of Jan Matejko who posed for him as Nicolaus Copernicus. Less known, however, is his concept of evolution, which he presented as a part of his philosophical system and which caused a heated debates among Polish intellectuals in the second half of the nineteenth century. Levittoux's theory, which was trying to combine religious dogma with the achievements of contemporary science, breaks out of the popular historical narrative, in which it is assumed that the discussions about the evolutionism were dominated by creationists and pro-Darwinian positivists. The aim of this article will be to present Levittoux's theory of evolution and to show how he combined the ideas of evolution with the concept of Divine creation. Secondary focus of the article will be to place his theory in the broader context of scientific and philosophical changes, that took place in the nineteenth century. Attention will be paid to the way in which the professionalization of science affected natural philosophers, such as Levittoux, who were refusing to accept the rigorous positivist methodology. It will also be shown how Levittoux’s evolutionism became part of the so-called "developmental evolutionism" which promoted a completely different vision of evolution than Darwinism. The non-Darwinian nature of Levittoux's evolutionism was inspired by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s theory. Levittoux adopted his idea that species evolve thanks to the environmental stimulus which affects their ontogenesis. However, this idea will be extrapolated in Levittoux’s writings to the whole Earth. So, he will conclude that the Earth is the equivalent of the womb in which, like the fetus, all Life develops. All changes of species, in his opinion, are additionally controlled by a universal principle which he called the law of attraction-repulsion. This law was also the tool by which God created the world. The Levittoux’s concept is one of the first attempts to create a synthesis of evolutionism and religious thought in the Polish post-Darwinian philosophy of nature. Levittoux, as a continuator of Saint-Hilaire's thought, is also an interesting example of an attempt to instill in Polish philosophy French evolutionist thought.

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Introduction: Darwin in the Larger Intellectual Context

Delisle

2019

Charles Darwin's Incomplete Revolution

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From Charles Darwin to the Evolutionary Synthesis: Weak and Diffused Connections Only

Cited by 20 publications

References 78 publications

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

The emerging structure of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: where does Evo-Devo fit in?

Evolutionary Theism of Henryk Levittoux in Polish and International Context

Introduction: Darwin in the Larger Intellectual Context

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