[Taxacom] Mona Lisa Smile

[Ken Kinman]

Pierre,
     What I got from Christopher's post was not that phylogenetic 
considerations are not useful to his industry, but rather that it is 
strictly cladistic classifications (and a PhyloCode that mandates 
them)----after all, even my classifications are phylogenetic (just not 
phylogenetic in the strictest sense).  And calling it ivory tower thinking 
makes perfect sense to me, having said the same thing myself, in that it is 
anti-Linnaean in rejecting paraphyletic taxa (and PhyloCode is even more 
anti-Linnaean in wanting to dispense with Linnaean categories).

      Therefore a Kinman System type of classification is addressing this 
type of frustration (which not only occurs in industry and society at large, 
but a lot of those who share those ivory tower habitats, although they do 
not engaged such narrow ivory tower thinking).

      Workers like Christopher can simply ignore the coding within my 
classifications and be content with a basically traditional Linnaean 
classification that is relatively stable.  The coding in the margins is just 
there for those of us whose have an interest in the cladistic particulars.  
For the vast majority of the inhabitants of our planet (and no doubt a 
majority of scientists as well), a paraphyletic Class Reptilia works just 
fine, and they resent that minority of ivory tower inhabitants who are 
destroying that kind of stability and utility in biological classifications.
  ----Ken



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