ABSTRACT
The evolutionary vision focuses on the sudden innovative changes in complex systems and on the relation of these changes to the universal laws of nature. Our discussion goes beyond neo-Darwinian evolution theory both in the reductionist direction of the physical basis of selective constraints, and in the non-reductionist direction of the symbolic basis for novelty and constraint in the generation of hierarchic levels. These two directions lead to complementary modes of description, both of which are necessary for explanation, and both of which are formally irreducible to each other.
