This essay is a response to Denis Noble’s argument that the evolutionary synthesis was based on illusory science and that it itself is a kind of illusion. The response includes an historical examination of the relationship between evolutionary biology and molecular biology, along with the importance of history in evolutionary biology, which is an historical science. It raises concerns about adherence to one standard evolutionary theory, and urges the reader to consider a more contextualist and historicist approach, one that adopts a more pluralistic view of evolutionary theory. It ends with the provocative question of what evolution would mean if it had no history.

本文是对丹尼斯·诺布尔关于进化综合基于幻觉科学的论点的回应，而论证综合本身就是一种幻觉。回应包括对进化生物学和分子生物学之间关系的历史考察，以及历史在进化生物学（这是一门历史科学）中的重要性。它引起了人们对遵循一种标准的进化论的担忧，并敦促读者考虑一种更为背景主义和历史主义的方法，这种方法采用了一种更为多元的进化论观点。它以一个挑衅性的问题结尾，即如果没有历史，进化将意味着什么。