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This book examines the relationship between classification and
evolutionary theory, with reference to the competing schools of
taxonomic thinking. Emphasis is placed on one of these schools, the
transformed cladists, who have attempted to reject all evolutionary
thinking in classification and to cast doubt on evolution in
general. The author examines the limits to this line of thought
from a philosophical and methodological perspective rather than
from a biological viewpoint. He concludes that transformed
cladistics does not achieve what it claims and that it either
implicity assumes a Platonic World View, or is unintelligible
without taking into account evolutionary processes - the very
processes it claims to reject. Through this analysis the author
attempts to formulate criteria, of an objective and consistent
nature, that can be used to judge competing methodologies and
theories without resorting to any particular theoretical standpoint
for justification. Philosophers of science, zoologists interested
in taxonomy and evolutionary biologists will find this a compelling
study of an area of biological thought that has been attracting a
great deal of attention.
This book examines the relationship between classification and
evolutionary theory, with reference to the competing schools of
taxonomic thinking. Emphasis is placed on one of these schools, the
transformed cladists, who have attempted to reject all evolutionary
thinking in classification and to cast doubt on evolution in
general. The author examines the limits to this line of thought
from a philosophical and methodological perspective rather than
from a biological viewpoint. He concludes that transformed
cladistics does not achieve what it claims and that it either
implicity assumes a Platonic World View, or is unintelligible
without taking into account evolutionary processes - the very
processes it claims to reject. Through this analysis the author
attempts to formulate criteria, of an objective and consistent
nature, that can be used to judge competing methodologies and
theories without resorting to any particular theoretical standpoint
for justification. Philosophers of science, zoologists interested
in taxonomy and evolutionary biologists will find this a compelling
study of an area of biological thought that has been attracting a
great deal of attention.
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