Abstract

In his book On the Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin provides a great deal of material evidence to support his theory of evolution. Over time, evolution has become accepted as a fact, even though several elements of his work remain controversial to this day. When evolutionary thought is narrated in textbooks and often in scientific publications on evolution, emphasis is placed on the continuities of explanatory mechanisms and principles by passing their ruptures. In his work Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, Julian Huxley proposed a Darwinian research program by tackling the problems of evolution, unifying data and theories of genetics with natural selection. From this publication began the development of what is known as the Modern Synthesis, which was carried out with the contribution of researchers from different fields of biology. Its main exponents were Ernest Mayr, Theodosius Dobzhansky, George G. Simpson, and George Ledyard Stebbins. This chapter examines the principles of Darwin’s and Modern Synthesis, outlining theoretical continuities and discontinuities and their consequences for modern explanations of biological evolution. It will also consider the effects of these continuities and ruptures on evolutionary biology.