The Evolutionary 16: Shaping a New Evolutionary Synthesis While Keeping the Looneys at Bay.

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Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. EVERY MATURE FIELD OF SCIENCE IS characterized by an established conceptual framework--what philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn called a "paradigm." Every now and then, according to Kuhn, scientists encounter a series of problems that cannot be resolved within the current paradigm. If this situation persists, a crisis eventually ensues, which is resolved by abandoning the reigning paradigm and embracing a new one. The history of science, however, teaches us that things are not always that tidy. Biology, for instance, arguably has never undergone a paradigm shift since Darwin, although the Darwinian revolution does count as an entirely new paradigm when compared to William Paley's intelligent design-based explanations for the diversity of life. Rather, the original "Darwinism" of the...