Darwinian and non Darwinian evolution: toward a modern "anti-synthesis"?

The present article complements some aspects contained in two prior commentaries (Camus 1997, Gallardo 1997) on the scope and limits of modern neodarwinism, discussing two points in particular. First, as evolutionary research advances, some new molecular or genetic discoveries still resist neodarwinian explanations, evidencing both the weakness of the available theoretical constructions and the need for different interpretations of evolution. Second, the modern "synthesis" was not a synthesis but a narrowing of the possible space of explanations to a reduced set of principles (constriction). In this process, other relevant phenomena and theories were discarded, generating a biased theory whose effects have propagated and amplified in the modern neodarwinism. Finally, the feasibility of an "anti-synthesis" for re-estructurating or re-integrating evolutionary biology is discussed.