A review of my species book 22 Dec 2010 David Morrison, editor at Systematic Biology, has given me a very nice and well informed and researched review for my book Species: A history of the idea. He even likes the cover. I have had some good and mixed reviews, but this one took time and effort, and he gets it right. I particular liked being called “the most readable philosopher that I have ever come across, as I hardly ever needed to use a dictionary to understand his words.” This might go against me in the next Philosopher’s Guild meeting, though… Book Species concept
Biology The false analogy between species and art 26 Jan 201118 Sep 2017 Biological topics are used widely in philosophy to illustrate arcane and recondite philosophical topics,and one of the most widely used, and most abused, are species as examples of natural kinds. Kangaroos, swans, tigers, lions, cats, and of course humans are all brought in to assist our intuitions. As Umberto Eco… Read More
History The Blue Book is in PDF 10 Sep 2009 Systematists know the tome by Gareth Nelson and Norman Platnick, Systematics and Biogeography (1981), as the Blue Book (shades of Wittgenstein!). It was published once and is now so hard to get that I have been unable to find a copy in ten years of looking. Now, Malte Ebach tells… Read More
Evolution Speciation – A brief history: The late eighteenth century 5 Apr 20146 Apr 2014 After Linnaeus had settled on the older mechanism of hybridisation of genera with other genera or with varieties formed by geographical conditions as the cause of new species, the topic began to pick up speed. Hybridisation remained the usual method as late as the 1830s (e.g., in Lindley) but two… Read More
Hey!, cheapskate, buy it! It’s got interesting & attractive cover art by Ernst Haeckel ; as such it impresses friends who see it on your coffee table, especially when you tell them you know the guy (not Haeckel).
From Sweden? Morrison works there. I would love a Swedish knighthood. If it was good enough for Linne, it’s good enough for me…
Well, I suppose that the Philosopher’s Guild seeks a coherent unreadableness, which I’m fully confident that you’ll one day achieve because I’ve seen you do it in the past.:) Anyway, John, Merry Christmas.:)
Could be ESL, I don’t know what that is, but neither of the other two. People visit, see it, pick it up from the coffee table and then actually start reading it.
…which is completely the reverse of what I would consider a coffee table book – hence the snark – kind of like “inflammable”