Hacia una epistemología evolutiva extendida: la retroalimentación entre variación y selección / Toward an Extended Evolutionary Epistemology: Feedback Between Variation and Selection

Este artículo se sitúa en la perspectiva de la naturalización del conocimiento científico, toda vez que es un intento por caracterizar y describir la evolución del conocimiento a partir de nociones de la biología. El objetivo principal es responder si es posible sostener la analogía que propone la epistemología evolutiva (EE): que la evolución del conocimiento científico (ECC) es similar a la evolución orgánica (EO). La pregunta surge tras las críticas que han atacado el núcleo de la analogía. La respuesta es que la analogía sí se sostiene si se tienen en cuenta las relaciones de retroalimentación, y que es posible proponer a la luz de la síntesis extendida (SE), una teoría posterior que complementa la síntesis moderna (SM). Así, este trabajo comienza con una descripción del estado de la "epistemología evolutiva", prosigue señalando por qué la síntesis moderna, que sirvió de base para su formulación, no es suficiente para fundamentar la epistemología evolutiva y finaliza proponiendo que es pertinente una modificación que puede describirse como "epistemología evolutiva extendida".

This paper is situated from naturalized epistemology perspective. It is an attempt to describe the evolution of knowledge using the theoretical structure of the evolution of species. The main objective of this work is to address whether is it possible to maintain the analogy in evolutionary epistemology and which aspects of the evolution of knowledge are similar to organic evolution? This question arises after some critics against the nucleus of its formulation. The analysis presented in this work suggests that the evolution of the knowledge can be understand through an framework analogous to that of the theory of organic evolution. For this, is necessary to take into account novel feedbacks relations between variation and selection, which are part of the Extended Synthesis theory. In such way, this paper begins with an introduction to evolutionary epistemology. After that, it shows why modern synthesis theory is not enough to maintain this kind of epistemology. It ended with the idea of an extended evolutionary epistemology.

Por que esforços de síntese teórica são bem-sucedidos no cenário biológico e malogram no cenário sociológico? / Why do efforts toward theoretical synthesis prove so successful in biology but not in sociology?

Esforços de grandes sínteses teóricas são raros no cenário biológico e se multiplicam facilmente no cenário sociológico. Ao mesmo tempo, enquanto no primeiro caso os esforços ganham status paradigmático, no segundo eles conduzem a uma 'balcanização' da disciplina. O artigo questiona as razões dessa diferença e procura a resposta reconstruindo um esforço de síntese teórica na biologia que já se estende por mais de duas décadas.

Rarely are efforts made to arrive at major theoretical syntheses in the realm of biology, while they are so often successful within the realm of sociology. Furthermore, though these efforts gain paradigmatic status in the former case, in the latter they lead to a 'Balkanization' of the discipline. The article explores what might account for this difference, seeking an answer through the reconstruction of one such effort in biology, which has covered more than two decades.