Revolution

[Richard Zander]

Regarding Hyam's message about paradigm shifts (no, I won't point out his
spelling mistake), I think there is no such thing happening. There IS a
great deal of enthusiam for using the computer to deal with complexity,
and it is showing up in chaos theory, fuzzy logic, virtual reality, and
even postmodernism, as well as cladistics. This is an incremental
advance, not a paradigm shift in that each of these new fields prescribes
a monomethodical solution that totally replaces all others...nihilism in
a nutshell.

R. Zander

ROGER HYAM wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> James Lyons-Weiler made an interesting point in reply to the Eye Eye
> problem.
>
> He said:
> "Kuhn's take on the matter would be that progress in taxonomy can only
> occur when a critical mass of common thought renders an old paradigm
> obsolete, and ushers in a new one.  I don't foresee a successful
> revolution in taxonomy as a process anytime soon."
>
> I have argued for some time that we are approaching a revolutionary
> paradigm shit in taxonomy. It is  comparable to the Copernican
> paradigm shift. Prior to the acceptance of Copernicus' views the
> explanations for the movements of planitary bodies were getting more
> and more complex with an increasing number of  anomalies. Is this
> not similar to what is happening in taxonomy? Certainly it is in
> higher plants. The exceptions to the rule are growing all the time.
> Surely if the diversity was "atomisable" as we are presuming we would
> have finished with vascular plants by now. (Could all be having fun
> with phylogenies in stead of fretting over what our terminal taxa
> should be?!)
>
> When ever I mention this to people who know about paradigm shifts
> (but not necessarily taxonomy) they imply (very politely) that I am
> talking out of my hat.
>
> What do taxacommers think?
>
> Roger.

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Richard H. Zander, Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Pkwy, Buffalo, NY 14211 USA zander at ag.net
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