On the Future of Evolutionary Theories: The Evolution of Evolution

Scientific thinking in the biological and social sciences is undergoing a slow revolution away from mechanistic metaphors borrowed from early concepts of the physical sciences toward the concept of living systems which embody two-way causation or feedback, and creativity resulting from the development of higher levels of organization. Along with this there is a trend away from conceptualizations based on dichotomous thinking and bipolar opposites and toward concepts based on continuous variation and multidimensionality as exemplified by complex systems.