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The Minimalist Program (MP), which was advanced by Chomsky in 1993, is an attempt to explore the possibility that language is a perfect solution to interface conditions (Strong Minimalist Thesis, SMT). In this essay, I call attention to a significant change over the years in the characterization of “perfection of language” in SMT, i.e. a change from a methodological to an empirical characterization, and point out some of its important empirical consequences for the biological study of language. I also reconsider the methodological status of the MP in biolinguistics, illuminating the relation between two kinds of minimalism, methodological and substantive.