Abstract

Richard Lewontin’s dialectical approach to biology emphasizes the relationship between the organism, its development,and the environment, providing an alternative view to the one provided by “mechanistic” and “reductionist” paradigms. This alternative view can be seen as the most lucid attempt made in recent times to apply to a particular science the dialectical tradition flowing from Engels’ Anti-Dühring and the unfinished Dialectics of Nature. By analysing Lewontin’s critique of mechanistic biology and his constructivism, a general assessment of the pretension of the dialectical approach in science will be attempted.