Attempts to integrate human culture, history, or symbolic imagination into a comprehensive theory of evolution have, up to now, foundered on a bifurcation between mind and nature deeply embedded in the project of modern science. This article attempts to overcome the bifurcation by foregrounding the process of learning, understood neither as the lifetime expression of evolved attributes nor as a supplementary (nongenetic) mechanism for their inheritance but as an intergenerational life process unfolding in a matrix of relations that overflows the emergent boundaries between organisms and their environments. The argument is presented in three steps. The first is to explain how a distinction between life and inheritance came to be built into the “modern synthesis” of evolutionary biology. In the second step, this synthesis is shown to have been stymied by its failure to deliver an adequate account of the role of ontogenesis in evolution. Of the several attempts to rectify this failure by extending the synthesis, the article focuses on just one, which introduces the paired concepts of “niche construction” and “ecological inheritance.” The third step reveals that the residual commitment of such an extended evolutionary synthesis to the logic of inheritance leaves it compromised. To resolve the impasse, the article proposes a revitalized theory of learning that promises to unify the fields of evolution and ecology. This can be achieved, however, only by relinquishing the concept of inheritance.

中文翻译：

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没有继承的进化

迄今为止，将人类文化、历史或象征性想象融入综合进化理论的尝试，在深深植根于现代科学项目中的思想与自然之间的分歧上失败了。本文试图通过突出学习过程来克服分叉，学习过程既不理解为进化属性的终生表达，也不理解为它们遗传的补充（非遗传）机制，而是作为跨代生命过程展开的关系矩阵中溢出涌现生物与环境之间的界限。论证分三个步骤提出。首先是解释生命和遗传之间的区别是如何被构建到进化生物学的“现代综合”中的。在第二步中，事实证明，这种综合由于未能充分说明个体发生在进化中的作用而受到阻碍。在通过扩展综合来纠正这一失败的几次尝试中，本文只关注一个，它引入了“生态位构建”和“生态继承”的配对概念。第三步表明，这种扩展的进化综合对遗传逻辑的剩余承诺使其受到损害。为了解决这一僵局，本文提出了一种复兴的学习理论，该理论有望统一进化和生态学领域。然而，这只能通过放弃继承的概念来实现。在通过扩展综合来纠正这一失败的几次尝试中，本文只关注一个，它引入了“生态位构建”和“生态继承”的配对概念。第三步表明，这种扩展的进化综合对遗传逻辑的剩余承诺使其受到损害。为了解决这一僵局，本文提出了一种复兴的学习理论，该理论有望统一进化和生态学领域。然而，这只能通过放弃继承的概念来实现。在通过扩展综合来纠正这一失败的几次尝试中，本文只关注一个，它引入了“生态位构建”和“生态继承”的配对概念。第三步表明，这种扩展的进化综合对遗传逻辑的剩余承诺使其受到损害。为了解决这一僵局，本文提出了一种复兴的学习理论，该理论有望统一进化和生态学领域。然而，这只能通过放弃继承的概念来实现。这篇文章提出了一种复兴的学习理论，它有望统一进化和生态学领域。然而，这只能通过放弃继承的概念来实现。这篇文章提出了一种复兴的学习理论，它有望统一进化和生态学领域。然而，这只能通过放弃继承的概念来实现。