Groves on the species concept 13 Sep 2009 Colin Groves, the primatologist from the ANU who does a lot of systematics, has an interview on the topic of species here at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show “Ockham’s Razor”. The podcast will be up in due course. One thing I must dispute with Colin is that there even is a phylogenetic species concept. But that’s for another day… Late note: Listen to the show here. Species concept Systematics
Epistemology The strange inversion of natural classification 6 Aug 2010 Around the time Charles Darwin headed off on his world tour (Rio! Sydney! Capetown!), taxonomists exercised themselves greatly over what was a “natural classification” in natural history, roughly in biology and geology. The shared view was that, as the system of Linnaeus was artificial, relying as it did solely on… Read More
Biology My latest paper 4 Jul 2010 I have just had a paper published: “What is a species? Essences and generation” Theory in Biosciences Volume 129, Numbers 2-3 / September, 2010. Pages 141-148 . DOI 10.1007/s12064-010-0090-z Abstract: Arguments against essentialism in biology rely strongly on a claim that modern biology abandoned Aristotle’s notion of a species as… Read More
Epistemology The relation of classification to abductive reasoning 3 Feb 20135 Feb 2013 In my last post, commentator DiscoveredJoys raised the question of abductive reasoning and how it relates to my claim that classification is basically pattern recognition. It’s a fair question. First I’ll repeat my response, and then go into it a little more. In my view, abduction is larger in scope… Read More
“One thing I must dispute with Colin” Why do some bloggers use the first names of the authors of papers/articles or the person being interviewed? Is it not conventional to use just the last name or both when discussing a colleague’s work? As well, Jerry Coyne tends to use first names: “According to Richard, both he and Armstrong were commissioned to write on the topic. . . .” whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/dawkins-17-armstrong-0/
it depends, I think, on whether they are known personally to you or not. People I know I tend to use their first name.