Monthly Archives: February 2011
Taxonomy as product
Taxonomists may be described as producers, their productions being the classifications and names of plants. The non-taxonomists may be likened to consumers, the aforesaid classifications and names being the commodities which they consume. Now the characteristics of a commodity are … Continue reading
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Filed under Quotes, Systematics
What is systematics and what is taxonomy?
Over the past few years there have been increasing numbers of calls for governments to properly fund systematics and taxonomy (and a number of largely molecular-focused biologists insisting they can do the requisite tasks with magic molecule detectors, so don’t … Continue reading
Filed under Biology, Epistemology, Evolution, History, Natural Classification, Philosophy, Systematics
Modus Darwin and the *real* modus darvinii
Elliot Sober has published a claim (Sober 1999, Sober 2008: §4.1, 265ff) that Darwin used, and we should too, a particular syllogism: similarity, ergo common ancestry. This cannot be right, for several reasons: logical, historical and inferential. First the logical, … Continue reading
Guest post for comment: sex and evolution
The following (below the fold) has been sent to me by Tam Hunt for comment by our readers. Constructive comment, that is. Tam’s own blog is here.
Filed under Evolution, Guest post, Science
Logic, evolution, and classification
Sometimes, as a philosopher, one forgets that not everyone has been forced to undergo a logic class. This is a problem, both because logic is taught as the second most boring subject after calculus, and because, like calculus, it is … Continue reading
God of the gaps
Phil Plait has addressed the incredible inanity of Bill O’Reilly’s comment that the tides prove God. It is, as Phil notes, a classic “God of the gaps” argument. I thought I should reprise the original source text of that criticism. … Continue reading
