Philosophy versus Science: The Species Debate and the Practice of Taxonomy

PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988:223 - 230 (1988)
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Abstract

A reading of a sample of taxonomical papers leads to the conclusion that new species identification is both taxonomically plausible and philosophically incoherent. As a result, taxonomy becomes a science that apparently violates a necessary condition of its rationality. It is this apparent violation that is the focus of the philosophical debate, a debate whose goal for taxonomy is theoretical coherence at a global level. In this paper, I assess the appropriateness of this goal.

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Alan G. Gross
University of Minnesota

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