Overthrow or extend Modern Synthesis?

Abstract

The pluralistic state of contemporary evolutionary theory has resulted into an academic confrontation, commonly exposed as a debate between two sides. On one side are those who defend synthetic theory of evolution (STE) can understand, translate and refute the evolutionary interpretations emerging from the new empirical and conceptual advance of current biological science. On the other side are those who claim the needs of a rethinking or a drastic conceptual change, or even considered a search for a new paradigm. In the present work I argue against the dual analysis of the debate, due to it is not able to capture the current epistemological pluralism of evolutionary biology, as an alternative I tried to collect and present such diversity of theories. The characterization proposed here is based on four epistemological attitudes towards TSE, called “Rejection”, “Expansion”, “Revolutionize” and “Formal re-foundation”. Employing these attitudes is possible organize and group different theoretical and empirical frameworks, for instance the nongenetic inheritance theory, Niche construction theory along with others. The grouping criterion is based on the identification of common ontological assumptions and epistemological objectives. As the conception of the extension and intension of the inheritance concept. Whereas the dissimilarity in basic ontological notions, is proposed here as the main source of controversy and theoretical diversity.