[Taxacom] Croizat "hype"

[Richard Zander]

If no one contributes a novel or at least distracting alternative,
panbiogeography (and paraphyly) will live on and on in Taxacom.

What does this quote remind you of?

"At present we do not ask whether something be reasonable or
preposterous, because we recognize that by reasonableness and
preposterousness are meant agreement and disagreement with a
standard--which must someday be displaced by a more advanced
quasi-delusion. Scientists in the past have taken the positivist
attitude--is this or that reasonable or unreasonable? Analyze them and
we find that they meant relatively to a standard, such as Newtonism,
Daltonism, Darwinism, or Lyellism. But they have written and spoken and
thought as if they could mean real reasonableness and real
unreasonableness. So our pseudo-standard is Inclusionism, and, if a
datum be a correlate to a more widely inclusive outlook as to this earth
and its externality and relations with externality, its harmony with
Inclusionism admits it."

Well, there you go. Taxacom certainly admits of Inclusionism, and we
argue about standards all the time. But would you buy a used car from
Charles Fort? (1941, The Books of Charles Fort, Holt and Co., N.Y., p.
258 of the Book of the Damned.)

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *
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

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of John Grehan
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 7:17 AM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Croizat "hype"

Anyone is welcome to have any view about panbiogeography, whether for or
against. It does not matter. What might matter (or not, who knows) is
that panbiogeography remains a pertinent issue (and you have Craw and
Heads to thank for that) as biogeographers now have to consciously
suppress its findings (as with the popular suppression of the fact that
molecular clock estimates are minimal) rather than out of ignorance or
confusion as may have been more the case in Croizat's time. Like it or
not, Croizat changed the landscape of biogeography forever, and in a way
that has had lasting impact.

If Ken is willing to put himself on the line to declare how Hausdorf and
Henning prove what they argue about vicariance I might be willing to
comment.

And by the way, Croizat argued in his writings for 'healthy skepticism'
about his method - something that his opponents did not. 

And why not announce Croizat's birthday a month in advance. After all,
Darwin's anniversaries often get years of advance notice.

John Grehan