RES:Positivism vs Realism Now: The metaphysics of time

[Thomas Schlemmermeyer]

                Thomas Schlemmermeyer - Universidade de S=E3o Paulo
                Caixa Postal 276
                14001-970 Ribeir=E3o Preto, SP, Brasil

                favourite links:  http://www.usp.br/sibi
http://www.usp.br/

Hello out there, these discussions are all very amazing and fascinating. =
I still
like it very much to participate in this selected, exclusive circle.
As I already mentioned in one of my previous messages, I am a beginner =
who is
seriously interested to understand it all;

I am now on the point to make the jump from Hennig to cladistics,=20

I already understood somehow that, while Hennigists look for =
synapomorphies, cladists look a little bit more for homologies.
And there comes in Richard=B4s statement:

To the extent
that your assumption that metaphysics HAS a place in science, you are
handicapping yourself with a burdensom circularity.

I am indeed very busy to avoid all burdensome circularities!
All these concepts of Hennig with rooted trees, monophyletic groups and =
synapomorphies are closely linked to separation events that ocurred =
somewhere
in time.
The trees grow from the bottom to the top passing through the magic wall =
of time.
I think the first scientist who made a phylogenetic tree of this type =
was the german
Ernst Haeckel in the 19th century.

However as cladists mix it alltogether (ingroup and outgroup) and make =
the rooting
afterwards (by paleontological or ontological criteria), I wonder a =
little bit, wether it
is still all right to travel with Hennig=B4s baggage (monophyletic =
groups, synapomorphies and the magic wall of time).
Could my baggage maybe far more light without this stuff? And is it =
possible that
someday we will abandon this rooting procedures alltogether and work =
with unrooted trees only?
(The magic wall of time than may transform into a magic floor of time)

OK, these are my modest questions of a learning new-comer,

Yours           Thomas =20