[Taxacom] New systematics book

[JF Mate]

I like the example of the Swiss Army Knife. In my youth I bought one, but
now it lies unused in a drawer. Now I simply use an Opinel No.7 knife.
With time you realise that what matters is how good a tool is at its real
job. The add-ons detract from its primary use.

Best

Jason


On 9 September 2013 17:32, Pierre Deleporte <
pierre.deleporte at univ-rennes1.fr> wrote:

>
> 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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> >>
> >> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> >> methods:
> >>
> >> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
> >>
> >> (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> >> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
> >>
> >> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Taxacom Mailing List
> > Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> > http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
> >
> > The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> methods:
> >
> > (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
> >
> > (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
> >
> > 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
> Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
>
> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
> methods:
>
> (1) by visiting http://taxacom.markmail.org
>
> (2) a Google search specified as:  site:
> mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here
>
> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
>