Denis Noble suggests that biologists who created the Modern Synthesis were taken in by conceptual traps and illusions hidden in the language they used. Rather than blame language itself, my response counters that all writers are responsible for careful attention to the implications of the metaphors they use, and that Richard Dawkins deliberately chose “the selfish gene.” Noble’s concept of biological relativity restores Darwin’s fuller and more nuanced definition of natural selection and shows how it also accounts for Lamarck’s assertion that acquired characteristics can be inherited. Biological relativity is supported by Maurice Merleau- Ponty’s chiasmic ontology.

丹尼斯·诺布尔（Denis Noble）认为，创建《现代综合》的生物学家被隐藏在其所用语言中的概念性陷阱和幻想所吸引。我的回应并没有怪罪语言本身，而是指出，所有作家都有责任对他们使用的隐喻的含义给予应有的关注，理查德·道金斯故意选择了“自私的基因”。来宝（Noble）的生物相对论概念还原了达尔文（Darwin）对自然选择的更全面，更细致的定义，并展示了它如何也解释了拉马克（Lamarck）断言可以继承获得性特征的主张。相对论得到了莫里斯·梅洛-庞蒂（Maurice Merleau- Ponty）的混沌本体论的支持。