The Modern Synthesis as a Limited Consensus 591
appreciation for the shaping power of mass extinction must reinstate paleontology
as a source of theory, and not merely a repository for the historical unfolding of
processes fully illuminated by microevolutionary studies. Thus, the new theory
produced by the confluence of these critiques and their integration with classical
Darwinism will not emerge from a simple act of generosity or noblesse oblige by
previous orthodoxy. The new theory may remain Darwinian in spirit (a "higher
Darwinism," see Gould, 1982b), but its development requires a wrenching from
several key assumptions of classical Darwinism—not simply a smooth evolution
from conventional precepts—as embodied in both the tripod of essential theoretical
support, and the methodology of uniformitarian extrapolation (the theoretical and
methodological poles of Darwinism, as discussed in Chapter 2).
Substantial change in any domain usually follows such a scenario, and cannot
unfold in smooth and untroubled gradualistic continuity. The venerable Hegelian
triad of thesis antithesis synthesis may not adequately describe all examples
of important change (see p. 23 for more on this general concept), but this classic
philosophical model of tension and (often episodic) resolution seems more in tune
with nature—or, to use the terminology of this book, higher in relative frequency
among patterns of change. Human thought, unlike the evolution of life, does
include the prospect of meaningful progress as a predictable outcome, especially in
science where increasingly better understanding of an external reality can impose a
fundamental organizing vector upon a historical process otherwise awash in quirks
of individual personalities, and changing fashions of cultural preferences. Surely
our views on the nature of taxonomic order have progressed (in the sense of better
consonance with the true causes of diversity) from the eclecticism of Aldrovandi,
to the coherent creationism of Linnaeus, to Cuvier's addition of a temporal
dimension, to Darwin's evolutionary synthesis of space, form, and time.
The Hegelian triad proceeds by confrontation between old and new systems
(thesis and antithesis), and by their melding into a novel theory preserving worthy
aspects of both—synthesis. But the continuing interplay of confrontation and
reconstitution does not spin in an endless circle, preceding nowhere. Useful
synthesis builds a transformed structure, and does not merely shuffle an unaltered
deck (or raise an unstable house of cards precariously built from unaltered parts).
Darwin constructed a powerful antithesis to older evolutionary views rooted in
predictable progress and internal drives. Modern versions of the three critiques
now present a worthy antithesis to the limitations of strict Darwinism. The second
part of this book presents this Hegelian antithesis, written in the hope and
expectation of synthesis and improvement. The synthesis that must eventually
emerge will build a distinct theoretical architecture, offering renewed pride in
Darwin's vision and in the power of persistent critiques—a reconstitution and an
improvement, waiting for the next antithesis that must lead us onward to the next
of many future syntheses in the wondrous, eternal play of mind and nature.