Starting from Denis Noble’s criticism on the modern synthesis, this article argues that (i) the author’s presentation of the modern synthesis focusses too one-sidedly on the phenomenal characteristics of the living, whereby it is made easily suitable to his criticisms, but risks to remain trapped in a territory-struggle; (ii) this criticism lacks an explicit focus on logical matters, and more in particular on the synthetic principles required to situate the relevancy or irrelevancy of phenomenal characteristics beyond territory-struggles. A brief sketch of how the principle of teleology calls for reflexivity allows us to reveal the tension in Noble’s account between, on the one hand, the way in which he stresses the importance of metaphors and language, and, on the other hand, the way in which he invokes empirical arguments to assess the illusory character of certain metaphors.

从丹尼斯·诺布尔（Denis Noble）对现代综合的批判开始，本文认为：（i）作者对现代综合的介绍过于侧重于生活的显着特征，因此很容易使其适应他的批评，但存在冒险的风险。继续陷于领土斗争中；（ii）这种批评没有明确地将重点放在逻辑问题上，更具体地说，是将超越地域斗争的现象特征的相关性或不相关性置于必要条件的综合原则。简要介绍目的论原理如何要求反思性，这使我们能够揭示来宝的观点之间的张力，一方面是在他强调隐喻和语言重要性的方式之间，另一方面是在强调隐喻和语言的重要性之间。