[Taxacom] New lizard species

[Stephen Thorpe]

So let us recap:

your mission is to convince us that the new gecko names are not Code compliant

I say that they clearly are Code compliant, based on a straightforward reading of the English version of the relevant ICZN article:

13.1.1. be accompanied by a description or definition that states in words characters that are purported to differentiate the taxon

First you tell me that 'character' means 'intrinsic character', which is self-evidently nonsense!

Then you tell me that the French version of the article does specify that characters must be intrinsic, and so that version is therefore the correct interpretation of the article!

Now you are telling me that me why the word 'purported' is there, as if this has some relevance to the debate! It is irrelevant why it is there! It IS there, and so you can't claim noncompliance with Art. 13.1.1 just because the description or definition doesn't in fact differentiate the taxon sufficiently well for practical purposes! It doesn't have to ...

Stephen




________________________________
From: Francisco Welter-Schultes <fwelter at gwdg.de>
To: Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz>
Cc: Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au>; jfmate at hotmail.com; TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Tue, 8 June, 2010 12:13:43 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] New lizard species


> the characters offered need not actually differentiate the taxon, they
> only need to purport to do so

yes Stephen, but this is something we all had to learn at the very
beginning: science has a philosophical base, any science is generally
based on assumptions that cannot be proved. Seen from this side, nobody
can be required to know the eternal truth. Neither in the future nor in
the present. In a scientific paper you cannot state "the results prove
that..." (at least not in a journal worth publishing your study), you only
can say "the results suggest that...".

So if you want to express that a description should differentiate the
taxon within the scientific framework, you can just demand a visible
intention by the term "purported", what else could you do?

Francisco