Darwin "sic et non": il duello inesistente

In this paper I analytically criticize and comment the alleged debate “Sic et non”, published in this journal (issue CVIII, pp. 91-107, April 2017), between Alessandro Minelli and Massimo Piattelli Palmarini, about the current status of “Darwin” in evolutionary biology today. I argue that the dialogue is based on terminological inaccuracies, out of date literature, and incoherent reasoning. One of the supposed duelists (Minelli) does not answer the question, and the other one proposes three criticisms to the current neo-Darwinian theory that are epistemologically and scientifically inconsistent, sketching puzzling alternative explanations for evolutionary phenomena that are well understood through the neo-Darwinian lens. Even more seriously, the second duelist (Piattelli Palmarini) represents the original Darwinian theory in a biased and misleading way. Both the duelists outline the ongoing debates on the evolution of the neo-Darwinian scientific research programme in unsuitable dramatic terms. As a result, the debate is philosophically pointless, due to the discrepancy with the actual researches in the field.