In the wake of recent attempts at alternate history (Bowler 2013), this paper suggests several avenues for a pluralistic approach to Charles Darwin and his role in the history of evolutionary theory. We examine in what sense Darwin could be described as a major driver of theoretical change in the history of biology. First, this paper examines how Darwin influenced the future of biological science: not merely by stating the fact of evolution or by bringing evidence for it; but by discovering natural selection, and giving it pre-eminence over any other mechanism for evolution; and also by proposing a masterful and quite unique synthesis of many scientific fields. Contrasting Darwin’s views with those of A.R. Wallace, I conclude that “natural selection” is clearly an original contribution, that it had no forerunners or co-discoverers, and could barely have appeared after Darwin conceived of it. This specificity of Darwin’s contribution is an invitation to be strongly presentist (Loison 2016) and to adopt only weak counter-factuals. In contrast, there are possible ways to use strong counter-factuals as attempts to “pluralize” the history of biological theory: i.e. imagine new possible avenues for the development of evolutionary biology. The idea that evolution was a theory “in the air” suggests that evolutionary theory could have developed in a world without Darwin, especially if we accept to delete not only “Darwin” but “England”. France and Germany are examined as possible countries where evolutionary ideas would have thrived even with no contribution from the English scientists. Finally, the paper suggests another counter-factual hypothesis: deleting not Darwin and his Origin but the Darwin Industry itself. This may allow us to read the Origin of Species with fresh eyes and to discover Darwin’s life-long interest in variation and its laws, as many of his early readers did.

在最近尝试替代历史（Bowler 2013）之后，本文为查尔斯·达尔文及其在进化理论史中的作用提出了多种途径。我们研究从何种意义上讲达尔文可以说是生物学史上理论变革的主要推动力。首先，本文研究了达尔文如何影响生物科学的未来：不仅仅是说明进化的事实或为其提供证据。但是通过发现自然选择，并使其比其他任何进化机制都重要；并提出了许多科学领域的精妙而独特的综合。将达尔文的观点与AR Wallace的观点进行对比，我得出的结论是，“自然选择”显然是一种原始的贡献，它没有先驱者或共同发现者，并且在达尔文构想之后几乎不可能出现。达尔文所做贡献的这种特殊性邀请我们成为强烈的演讲者（Loison，2016年），并且只采纳虚弱的事实。相反，有可能使用强大的反事实来尝试“复化”生物学理论的历史：即，想象进化生物学发展的新可能途径。进化论是一种“悬而未决”的理论，这表明进化论本可以在没有达尔文的世界中发展起来的，特别是如果我们接受不仅删除“达尔文”而且删除“英国”的话。法国和德国被认为是即使没有英国科学家的贡献，进化思想也会蓬勃发展的可能国家。最后，本文提出了另一种反事实假设：不是删除达尔文及其起源，而是删除达尔文工业本身。这也许可以让我们阅读物种起源 像他的许多早期读者一样，以崭新的眼光和发现达尔文对变化及其定律的终生兴趣。