Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id AAA25192 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 1 Dec 2001 00:59:49 GMT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" From: "Philip A.E. Jonkers" <phae@uclink.berkeley.edu> Organization: UC Berkeley To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Taxonomy and speciation Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 15:59:29 -0800 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.2] References: <F8CBlGkVf370SkbsGuB0000370b@hotmail.com> In-Reply-To: <F8CBlGkVf370SkbsGuB0000370b@hotmail.com> Message-Id: <01113015592903.01076@storm.berkeley.edu> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Scott:
> So you're saying that speciation does not occur? Do I have you correct
> here?
The reason that motivated me to post this hypothesis is the debate mentioned
in Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea that goes on between taxonomers
arguing about when a moment of speciation really has occurred.
Since it is decided by humans when a group of organisms is sufficiently
separated from the rest of the living world to be called a species. The
labeling of groups of organisms is a human enterprise. And as Darwin mentions
often a very subjective one, as one taxonomers sometimes calls a strongly
related group a variety while the next one decides it to be a genuine species.
Therefore since the naming of species is subjective, the act of speciation -
the birth of a new species from a parent species - is also subjective. This
means that it is subjective speak about when an act of speciation
has occurred.
In a loose sence I do believe in the virtue of speciation, it is a convenient
way to acknowledge the dynamics of evolution. But the strong insistence of
speciation occurring as an instant event is decided by the taxonomer
and therefore necessarily subjective and needless to dispute endlessly
over.
Philip.
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