opinion of taxonomy (was peer review)

[Tom DiBenedetto]

Barry M. OConnor wrote:

>The Systematics Agenda 2000 working group concisely defined, under the
>question, "What is Systematics?" three broad areas:
>1.  Taxonomy - The science of discovering, describing, and classifying
>species or groups of species...
>2.  Phylogenetic Analysis - The discovery of the evolutionary relationships
>among a group of species...
>3.  Classification - The grouping of species - ultimately on the basis of
>evolutionary relationships.

Hi Barry,
Ah, the modern age! Instead of walking up one entire flight of stairs, I'll send you this question in a roundabout way. As I
look at these three categories, I find it very hard to distinguish them at all. Taxonomy is "...classifying ...groups of
species; Classication is "...grouping of species on the basis of evolutioary relationships"; and phylogenetic analysis is
"discovery of ...relationships.among a group of species" (so as to classify, I presume). How do any of these say
anything differnt from any other? Discovering relationships (2) is the basis for naming (1) and classifying (1,3). Isnt this
one broad area with three names?