Chapter 4 - Consilience, historicity, and the species problem

Summary

The species problem is one of the big problems in biology and the philosophy of biology. In this chapter the author offers a positive answer to the species problem. In particular, the author suggests that when Michael Ruse and others argue against the species-are-individual thesis, they miss what is most important about that thesis: that species are historical entities. The author also tries to clarify what it means to say that species are historical entities by developing the idea that species are path-dependent entities. When it comes to the question of whether 'species' refers to a real category in nature, the author offer a pragmatic form of species anti-realism. Such anti-realism holds that the species category is not a natural category, yet the word 'species' should not be relegated to the dust heap of outdated theoretical terms.