Positivism vs Realism

[James Francis Lyons-Weiler]

>       I am willing to not deny it - but I am not willing to deny
>       much else that could have occured, either - the more
>       complex possible pasts that envelope and include
>       simple hierarchical sorting of characters.

but that is not denied - that is homoplasy. Cladistics does not deny
homoplasy, rather we seek it out. But we do so by isolating that data
which cannot be explained by the higher level hypothesis (descent).


        Where do organisms get their homoplastic states?  (the
        answer I'm looking for is descent).



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