Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:37:39.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pluralism, Normative Naturalism, and Biological Taxonomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Marc Ereshefsky
Marc Ereshefsky*
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The discipline of biological taxonomy is rife with philosophical controversies. One of them is particularly relevant to the topic of this symposium, namely the question of taxonomic unity. Should biologists aim for a single correct classification of the world's organisms or should they allow a plurality of equally correct classifications?

For those with little or no background in evolutionary biology, the suggestion of taxonomic pluralism might seem odd. Don't introductory biology texts as well as television nature shows suggest that there is a single correct way to sort the world's organisms? They do, but that advertised agreement masks a number of controversies that have raged in biology since Darwin's time. Consider the question of how to sort organisms into species. Currently there are no less than seven prominent definitions of the species category (Ereshefsky 1992a).

Type
Part XII. Unity and Disunity in Physics and Biology
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 382 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Thanks to David Baumslag, John Dupre', David Hull, Jim Lennox, Elliott Sober, and Brad Wilson for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper. The National Science Foundation provided financial support for writing this paper (NSF Grant SBR-9310624), and the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh provided stimulating and conducive surroundings.

References

Dupre, J. (1993), The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, P. and Raven, P. (1969), “Differentiation of Populations”, Science 165: 1228–1232. Reprinted in Ereshefsky (1992b): 57-68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eldredge, N. and Cracraft, J. (1980), Phylogenetic Patterns and the Evolutionary Process: Method and Theory in Comparative Biology. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Ereshefsky, M. (ed.),( 1992a), The Units of Evolution: Essays on the Nature of Species Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ereshefsky, M. (1992b), “Eliminative Pluralism”, Philosophy of Science 59:671–690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ereshefsky, M. (1995), Representing Nature: Biology and the Philosophy of Classification. Manuscript.Google Scholar
Ghiselin, M. (1987), “Species Concepts, Individuality, and Objectivity”, Biology and Philosophy 2: 127–143.Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1987), “Genealogical Actors in Ecological Roles”, Biology and Philosophy 2:168–183.Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1989), “A Function for Actual Examples in Philosophy of Science”, in Ruse, M. (ed.), What the Philosophy of Biology Is. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pps 309–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1984), “Species”, Philosophy of Science 51: 308–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, L. (1983), “The Demise of the Demarcation Problem”, in Cohen, R. S. and Laudan, L. (eds.), Physics, Philosophy and Psychoanalysis: Essays in Honor of Adolf Grunbaum. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, pp.111–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, L. (1984), Science and Values. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1987), “Progress or Rationality?: The Prospects for Normative Naturalism”, American Philosophical Quarterly 24: 19–31.Google Scholar
Laudan, L. (1990), “Normative Naturalism”, Philosophy of Science 57: 44–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leplin, J. (1990), “Renormalizing Epistemology”, Philosophy of Science 57: 20–33.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1969), Principles of Systematic Zoology. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Nelson, G. and Platnick, N. (1981), Systematics and Biogeography. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Panchen, A. (1992), Classification, Evolution and the Nature of Biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1985), “Methodology, Theory and the Philosophy of Science”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 66: 377–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, A. (1990), “Normative Naturalism and The Role of Philosophy”, Philosophy of Science 57: 34–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, G. (1961), The Principles of Animal Taxonomy. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Sober, E. (1980), “Evolution, Population Thinking, and Essentialism”, Philosophy of Science 47: 350–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sober, E. (1988), Reconstructing the Past. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. (1985), “The Continuing Search for Order”, American Naturalist 126: 729–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Templeton, A. (1989), “The Meaning of Species and Speciation: A Genetic Perspective.” In Otte, and Endler, (eds.), Speciation and its Consequencses. Sunderland: Sinauer Association, pp.3–27. Reprinted in Ereshefsky (1992a), pp. 159-186.Google Scholar