Species Problems and Beyond 23 Nov 202223 Nov 2022 In conjunction with Frank Zachos from the Natural History Museum Vienna, and Igor Pavlinov of Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow (both mammalogists) I have edited this book: Now reduced in price and available in hardback, paperback and e-back! You can read more but I thought it was worthwhile noting the table of contents: Section 1. Concepts and theories 1. We Are Nearly Ready to Begin the Species Problem – Matthew J Barker 2. Is the Species Problem That Important? – Yuichi Amitani 3. ‘Species’ as a technical term: Multiple meanings in practice, one idea in theory – Thomas A C Reydon 4. What Should Species Be? Taxonomic Inflation and the Ethics of Splitting and Lumping – Jay Odenbaugh 5. The Good Species – John S Wilkins Section 2. Practice and methods 6. Species in the Time of Big Data: The Multi-species Coalescent, the General Lineage Concept, and Species Delimitation – Aleta Quinn 7. Species delimitation using molecular data – Megan L Smith and Brian C Carstens 8. Taxonomic order, disorder and governance – Stijn Conix, Stephen T Garnett, Frank E Zachos and Les Christidis Section 3. Ranks and trees and names 9. Ecology, evolution, and systematics in a post-species world – Brent D Mishler 10. The species before and after Linnaeus – tension between disciplinary nomadism and conservative nomenclature – Alessandro Minelli 11.?Taxonomic hierarchies as a tool for coping with the complexity of biodiversity – Julia D Sigwart Section 4. Metaphysics and epistemologies 12. The species problem from a conceptualist’s viewpoint – Igor Ya. Pavlinov 13. (Some) Species are Processes – John Dupré 14. Metaphysical presuppositions about species stability: problematic and unavoidable – Catherine Kendig 15. Critique of taxonomic reason(ing): nature’s joints in light of an ‘Honest’ Species Concept and Kurt Hubner’s historistic?philosophy of science – Frank E Zachos Afterword 16. Continuing After Species: An Afterword – Robert A Wilson It is a nice mix of scientists, philosophers and historians, and mixtures of all three disciplines (I’m thinking here of Alessandro Minelli). It’s about as interdisciplinary as it’s possible to make it. I am very proud of this and I strongly recommend you all buy a copy now to increase the royalties to keep up with a fast moving problem and discussion. Philosophy
Epistemology Plantinga’s EAAN revisited 3 Mar 20123 Mar 2012 Blogs are places where one tosses out a hastily constructed piece of argument, or commentary, and not where one slowly and thoughtfully writes something that one will eventually earn an income from (unless you are PZ Myers). So when I responded to Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism, I did so… Read More
Biology Evolution quote: Sirks and Zirkle 25 Apr 201125 Apr 2011 At this point it might be well to insert a fact that has generally been overlooked by the historians of biology. The pre-evolutionary concept of species is generally given as a universally accepted view that species were constant and true breeding forms. Actually, the idea that species were completely stable… Read More
Philosophy I wonder what it *is* that I actually do? 14 Oct 2010 A note on credit: I have been accused elsewhere of having leached off Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, by Zack Weiner, whose cartoons I often use. Zack has not complained, and I am using the code he generates at his site, unmodified, and the images are from his site, not reposted… Read More