Evolution Are species life forms? 19 Jun 201719 Jun 2017 This is a section of my forthcoming revision to Species, presented here for comments that I can steal – umm, I mean for peer commentary. The philosophical ideas and terms of Wittgenstein have played an interesting and underappreciated role in the species debate: we saw Beckner appeal to family resemblance… Continue Reading
Biology A nineteenth century view on classification 18 Oct 201420 Oct 2014 The principle upon which I understand the Natural System of Botany to be founded is, that the affinities of plants may be determined by a consideration of all the points of resemblance between their various parts, properties, and qualities; that thence an arrangement may be deduced in which those species… Continue Reading
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… Continue Reading
Biology Are species theoretical objects? 27 Oct 201328 Oct 2013 [Note: this is a paper that has sat in my drawer for a while now. I am posting it to follow from my last post on the theological origins of species. If species are not ranks in biology, what are they?] It is often claimed that species are the units… Continue Reading
Biology Articles of faith: The theological and philosophical origins of the concept of species 22 Oct 201329 Oct 2013 It takes a while for the implications of one’s own work to sink in. In my 2009 book Species, a History of the Idea (see here), I argued that the notion that before Darwin people were essentialistic and fixist about species was false. A recent paper by Jack Powers about Mayr’s misreading… Continue Reading
Administrative Coming to Berkeley 9 Feb 2013 I’ll be in Berkeley (California, in case there’s another one somewhere) from around the 9th to the 15th of March, to give a talk to the Mellon-Sawyer series Speciesism and the Future of Humanity. Anyone who wants an unemployed philosopher to give a talk to their group also, or just… Continue Reading
Biology Did Popper and Quine invent “Aristotelian essentialism”? 7 Feb 201221 Jun 2018 There are many narratives told about evolution. One of the most widely told is the Essentialism Story, replayed in textbook, popular storytelling and philosophy alike. It goes like this: Before Darwin, biologists were constrained by essentialist thinking, in which they were committed to species being natural kinds where there were… Continue Reading
Biology The difference between population concepts and “population thinking” 8 Jan 201224 Nov 2022 The late Ernst Mayr is remembered for many things, but a number of his historical and philosophical claims are unravelling. The very clever and perspicacious Rutgers geneticist, Jody Hey, has published a paper in the Quarterly Review of Biology on one of these. Jody is a very good reader of… Continue Reading
Administrative A busy fortnight 9 Dec 201122 Jun 2018 So, I have been rather active for the last fortnight (that’s two weeks for Americans). I visited Canberra to work on a species concept paper with a colleague, Brent Mishler. I attended a philosophy of biology workshop in Bundanoon, a sleepy little town outside Sydney. I got a love kiss… Continue Reading
Administrative Competition winners 2 Nov 20112 Nov 2011 In case people did not notice my announcement in the comments of that post, the winners of a signed copy of my species history book are: Cameron Peters Doug G Elais Jackson Jesse Schaefer Lorax sbh Send me an email with your addresses. I will send the books as soon as… Continue Reading