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Kevin Laland, one of the leading theorists of ‘niche construction’ and a figurehead of ‘extended evolutionary synthesis’, turns his attention to the seemingly unfinished business of general evolutionary theory: explaining the emergence of humans’ spectacular cognitive, technical, language, social and cultural capacities. Hence the title of the book, Darwin’s unfinished symphony (translated in French by Thierry Hoquet, published by La Découverte, 2022). Among animals, imitation of fellow creatures is more widespread than we think. Human capacities have been made possible by the high fidelity of imitation, the only guarantee of cumulative cultural evolution. This high fidelity has, in turn, only emerged thanks to the act of teaching, where the copied devotes energy, attention and time to being understood by the learner. Teaching appears to be the keystone in the emergence of language, technique, cooperation and, in cascade, civilizations and art. The book’s subtitle, How culture shaped the human mind, sums up the fact that for over two million years, it has not been genes that have been the main determinants of human evolution, but culture. This posture implies defining culture, a question that is addressed here, and finally requires examining in which broader intellectual framework Kevin Laland’s book fits.