language

[Byron J. Adams]

on 2/14/01 7:11 AM, Thomas DiBenedetto at TDibenedetto at DCCMC.ORG wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cheol-Min Kim [mailto:kim.296 at OSU.EDU]
>> Nature created species; Man created genera.
>
>
> Actually, "species" is a taxon like any other, i.e. both as much a human
> construct, and (potentially) as accurate a pointer to something real, as are
> genera.
>

I see Tom's point:  Taxonomic groups _are_ human constructs we use to
describe (optimally) real entities.  But I still agree with the gist of
Cheol-Min's statement.  Species are self-delimiting (i.e. exist independent
of human observation & classification), whereas the Linnean practice of
ranking "higher" taxa is purely arbitrary.  Species are comparable units
(semaphoronts), whereas this is rarely the case among genera or other ranks.

Hierarchically nested "higher" taxa may be no less real than species (in an
ontological sense).  But the Linnean system fails to represent comparable
natural groups.  Nature did indeed produce the species we've recovered, the
problem is that humans have failed to recover and represent the "higher"
ranks created by nature, producing instead arbitrary, artificial entities,
such as genera.

Byron