[Taxacom] New systematics book

[Pierre Deleporte]

Mythic Swiss army knife

what is devised to serve all purposes,
is likely optimal for none

stable, material reference specimens,
and potentially illimited variety of classifications
optimally useful in different contexts of use

e.g. phylogeny-friendly classifications
(possibly explicitly combining para + mono-holo)
could be fine for macroevolutionary studies
(just an example, but cladograms can be sufficient)

I think that the search for
a 'true', stable, unique-and-optimal, 'scientific' and refutable 
nomenclature
is ill-advised throughout and from the start

the codes help limiting superfluous instability and ambiguity,
fortunately otherwise you can choose or devise
your pet nomenclature for your needs

unique-and-stable requires arbitrary decisions
(but is arbitrary consensus possible?
let's check on TAXACOM ;-)

Pierre


Le 09/09/2013 16:56, JF Mate a écrit :
> Information content of classifications is inversely related to their ease
> of use and stability. And since everybody´s threshold is different in this
> inherently subjective matter, I doubt there is an optimum sweet spot that
> will please the majority.
>
> Jason
>
>
>
> On 9 September 2013 16:39, Curtis Clark<lists at curtisclark.org>  wrote:
>
>> On 2013-09-09 7:29 AM, Richard Jensen wrote:
>>> I agree with Ken.  The expression "Birds are descended from Reptiles" is
>>> more informative and interesting than is "Birds are Reptiles."  First, it
>>> clearly states an evolutionary hypothesis.  Second, it encourages the
>>> reader to consider what lineage of reptiles differentiated into birds and
>>> how this happened.
>> The expression "birds are maniraptoran theropods" is more informative
>> than either one (and more easily subject to falsification, however that
>> might work in systematics).
>>
>> And no one (that I know of) says "birds are descended from amniotes" or
>> "birds are descended from vertebrates", or even "humans are descended
>> from mammals".
>>
>> --
>> Curtis Clark        http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark
>> Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4140
>> Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona CA 91768
>>
>>
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>> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
>>
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>
> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
>
> (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
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> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.

-- 
Pierre DELEPORTE
UMR 6552 EthoS
Université Rennes 1, CNRS
Station Biologique
35380 Paimpont
tél (+33) 02 99 61 81 63
fax (+33) 02 99 61 81 88