There have been periodic claims that evolutionary biology needs urgent reform, and this article tries to account for the volume and persistence of this discontent. It is argued that a few inescapable properties of the field make it prone to criticisms of predictable kinds, whether or not the criticisms have any merit. For example, the variety of living things and the complexity of evolution make it easy to generate data that seem revolutionary (e.g. exceptions to well-established generalizations, or neglected factors in evolution), and lead to disappointment with existing explanatory frameworks (with their high levels of abstraction, and limited predictive power). It is then argued that special discontent stems from misunderstandings and dislike of one well-known but atypical research programme: the study of adaptive function, in the tradition of behavioural ecology. To achieve its goals, this research needs distinct tools, often including imaginary agency, and a partial description of the evolutionary process. This invites mistaken charges of narrowness and oversimplification (which come, not least, from researchers in other subfields), and these chime with anxieties about human agency and overall purpose. The article ends by discussing several ways in which calls to reform evolutionary biology actively hinder progress in the field.

中文翻译：

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进化生物学出了什么问题？

不时有人声称进化生物学需要紧急改革，本文试图解释这种不满的数量和持续时间。有人认为，该领域的一些不可避免的特性使其容易受到可预见类型的批评，无论这些批评是否有任何价值。例如，生物的多样性和进化的复杂性使得很容易生成看似革命性的数据（例如，既定概括的例外，或进化中被忽视的因素），并导致对现有解释框架的失望（其高抽象级别和有限的预测能力）。然后有人认为，特殊的不满源于对一个众所周知但非典型的研究项目的误解和厌恶：行为生态学传统中的适应性功能研究。为了实现其目标，这项研究需要独特的工具，通常包括想象的机构和对进化过程的部分描述。这会招致对狭隘和过于简单化的错误指控（这些指控尤其来自其他子领域的研究人员），而这些也与对人类能动性和总体目标的焦虑相呼应。文章最后讨论了改革进化生物学的呼声积极阻碍该领域进展的几种方式。