Avoiding Paradigm-Based Limits to Knowledge of Evolution

Abstract

Since Darwin (1859) first proposed that evolution proceeds by natural selection, we have learned much about it. The founding of population genetic theory (summaries: Fisher, 1958; Haldane, 1932; Wright, 1931) showed the genetic feasibility of natural selection, removing a major objection to Darwin's theory (Provine, 1971), and led to extended study of population genetic phenomena (e.g., Nei, 1987; Hartl and Clark, 1989). The ``Modern Synthesis'' (Jepsen et al., 1949; Mayr and Provine, 1980) brought paleontology and systematics together with population genetics to endorse Darwin's insights and, many thought, to lay the foundation of steady progress in understanding.