Striking a balance, weighting and Cladistics

[Gabriel A. Eickhoff]

I've been reading a lot through Fred Szalay's work on Functional-Adaptive
Analysis. Being a cladist at heart, I'm naturally drawn to criticizing the
weighting that Szalay practically mandates for the proper classification of
characteristics. Is there any end or resolution in sight or currently
existent which I just don't know about which hints at a way around
weighting or rationalizes it into a more "pure", objective way as so it
might be used by proper cladistics?
   Basically what I'm asking is, is there yet a synthesis between Cladistics
and the seemingly misled field Evolutionary Systematics?

Cheers-

-Gabriel A. Eickhoff
University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology
Ann Arbor, Michigan
48105
USA