The Dialectical Biologist is a 1985 book by the ecologist Richard Levins and the biologist Richard Lewontin, in which the authors sketch a dialectical approach to biology.

[2] That is, a biological system of some kind consists of a collection of heterogeneous parts.

For example, Darwinian evolution points to the competition of a variety of species, each with heterogeneous members, within a given environment.

A dialectical biologist fully accepts this picture then looks for ways in which the competing creatures (which serve as the internal conflicts in the environment) lead to changes.

The changes manifest in the creatures themselves, through the creatures embracing biological adaptations that provide them with advantages, and in the environment itself, as when the action of microbes encourages the erosion of rocks.