[Taxacom] Full revolution

[Richard Zander]

I am promoting full revolution. Remember when there was a "paradigm
change" and we were all supposed to reject theories as just-so stories,
redefine evolution as relationships on a cladogram, abandon scientific
induction in favor of hypothetico-deductivism, and revile as mere
"intuition" the results of 250 years of taxonomic expertise and
discursive reasoning? 

We now need a total rejection of structuralism in systematics. I am
speaking to students, here, not their professors. Students are amenable
to clear and logical arguments and have a certain urge to totally revamp
or overturn their professor's dearest held conceptions. 

Just think, students! Of a special room in your school where you and
others of like mind study inductive logic and discursive reasoning, and
practice making theories using your new abilities, then placing the
theories in a marketplace of ideas, and testing them against both
falsification and continued support from new facts. Wow! Then, when you
graduate, you can throw the first sabot into the machine by using the
scientific theorization you have been learning to publish a paper in
which you Name a Cladogram Node. 

I've written a Manifesto as a guide:
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Manifesto.htm 
Good luck!
 
* * * * * * * * * * * * 
Richard H. Zander 
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA 
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/ and
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Modern Evolutionary Systematics Web site:
http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/21EvSy.htm