Evolution quotes 12 Jun 2010 Evolution and phylogeny.—Evolution is the process and phylogeny the record of descent. Phylogeny is thus the measure of relationship, and is to be expressed in terms of community of ancestry; hence, if relationship is to express evolution adequately, it must take account of each change, from the branch to the variad. It must arrange these in their proper phylogenetic order, and denote them by such terms as will clearly indicate their fixed phylogenetic position. This has long been done for the most part, but the fact has too often been overlooked that the sequence of changes is fixed in practically all regions of intense evolution. The genus exhibits lines of evolution expressed in the sections, and the species shows more recent changes marked by variads. … A natural classification must maintain as well as reveal the different degrees of relationship ‘as expressions of different stages of evolution, and it can do this most accurately with genera, sections, species, and variads, where the lines of evolution are still in a condition conducive to experimental study. [Hall, Harvey Monroe and Clements, Frederick E. (1923), The phylogenetic method in taxonomy; the North American species of Artemisia, Chrysothamnus, and Atriplex (On verso of t.-p.: Carnegie institution of Washington. Publication no. 326; Washington,: The Carnegie institution of Washington) 1 l., iv, 355, p 5.] Evolution Quotes Systematics EvolutionQuotes
Creationism and Intelligent Design Evolution and its rivals – special issue of Synthese 16 Dec 2010 A special issue of the philosophical journal Synthese covers the topic “Evolution and its rivals”. It is open access until the end of this month, so you can get the papers now. The major discussions centre around intelligent design, which is the nearest to intellectual adequacy that creationism gets. There… Read More
Evolution A letter to a high school student 14 Dec 2007 It’s a dangerous thing to let philosophers talk to high school students, in the main, for we tend to drown our audience in terminology and deep concepts (many of which turn out to be not so deep), but I do try to communicate clearly when it is needed. My kids… Read More
Biology Evopsychopathy 1. Conditions for sociobiology 6 Dec 201218 Sep 2017 Well I better put up or shut up, I guess. Here are my ruminations, excretions, and expressions regarding evolutionary psychology, or, as we might call it, evopsychopathy. I am, as I have said, a born again sociobiologist, so I guess that makes me an evopychopath. Let’s get a few things… Read More