It is time for an expansion and enrichment of evolutionary theory. The "back to the future" proposal contained herein is based on three postulates: 1) Neo-Darwinism is too impoverished for this task; 2) its predecessor, Darwinism, contained the necessary breadth of vision and metaphor to be the basis for an inclusive and unifying theory of biology; and 3) the necessary framework for this new stage in the evolution of evolutionary theory is largely in place. We make our case through the use of a number of metaphorical dualisms designed to help focus discussions toward a more cooperative and productive approach to the study of living systems. Along the way, we suggest a number of self-induced paradoxes in neo-Darwinian accounts of evolution that are resolved by our perspective.
Darwinism; nature of the organism; nature of the conditions; extended synthesis; metaphors; time, sequency; simultaneity; thermodynamics; metabolism; space; information; function; history; complexity; cohesion; compensatory changes; evolutionary transitions; cooperation; division of labor; ecological hierarchy; genealogical hierarchy; self-organization
