Cladistic hypotheses

[J. Kirk Fitzhugh]

At 02:12 PM 11/23/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>* and from the quote from the original exchange, it may be that the
>cladogram _suggested_ the hypothesis, if it didn't already exist in the
>analyst's mind as something that was being tested.

Why not consider shared similarities as the observations-as-effects that
"suggest" the cladogram-as-hypothesis?  There is no need to add the
superfluous layer of thinking that a cladogram suggests a hypothesis, when
the cladogram itself is the hypothesis.

As the mechanics of hypothesis testing require the deduction of potential
test consequences, a conclusion of a mental inference, as a
cladogram-as-hypothesis, cannot be tested by a cladogram-as-hypothesis
produced by a computer.

Kirk

-----------------------------------------------------
J. Kirk Fitzhugh, Ph.D.
Curator of Polychaetes
Invertebrate Zoology Section
Research & Collections Branch
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles CA 90007

Phone:   213-763-3233
FAX:     213-746-2999
e-mail:  kfitzhug at nhm.org
http://www.nhm.org/research/annelida/staff.html
http://www.nhm.org/research/annelida/index.html
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