My species article online at RNCSE 19 Dec 2007 A little while back I published an article on species concepts in Reports of the National Center for Science Education, and I just discovered that it is available on the web. This is actually abetter format than the published version, which has weird columns and layout. The citation is Wilkins, John S. 2006. Species, Kinds, and Evolution. Reports of the National Center for Science Education 26 (4): 36-45. Evolution Species and systematics
Evolution What is “life”, at last 13 Sep 200718 Sep 2017 Recently, that is since 1975 or so, the view has arisen that a living thing is something that satisfies several conditions. Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and evolution 4: Is morality fitness-enhancing? 19 May 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] If we agree that morality enhances fitness, because it enables cooperation, several questions arise: what sort of fitness enhancement does it provide and to what? In short, what is the selection process tracking? To say that morality provides a foundation for social cohesion and the consequent… Read More
Epistemology Bayes, evolutionary clocks, and biogeography 30 Mar 20122 Apr 2012 I just received a review by Gareth Nelson of Michael Heads’ book Molecular Panbiogeography of the Tropics (publishers’ site). I should have blogged this before, since I got a copy, being on the editorial board for this series (the same one I published with at Uni Calif Press), but I have… Read More
You were trying to explain some of this to me in NYC back in ’05, but I think I must have completely missed your point. I was also surprised that Linneus—who produced all the evidence for common descent—was a fixed-species creationist. I knew he had once questioningly (mistakenly?) referred to a plant variety as “a daughter of time” but I suppose that must have been late in life. I can use some of this, thanks.