[Taxacom] Dishonorable people as species names

[Geoff Read]

Thanks for the responses.

Would anyone disagree with the title of the piece - "Scientists Should
Stop Naming Species after Awful People"?  Yes, we shouldn't do that.
However, as in Ken's example, we are not likely to agree on who is awful.

Nevertheless I find distasteful the sycophantic, publicity-seeking, naming
of species after celebrities, singers, politicians, fictional characters
in books & movies, and the very wealthy, all of whom have no connection or
interest in the species being named.  It makes me cringe when I see one of
those names published, and see the subsequent sniggering in the press, to
the detriment of any science.  Taxonomists, lets have some dignity about
our naming choices.

And yes, retrospective renaming based on current moral perspectives isn't
going to happen.

Cheers,

Geoff


On Sun, November 10, 2019 9:11 pm, JF Mate via Taxacom wrote:
> The article is a naive, retrospective view of history and science
> which is best ignored. Also it is hard to see how this is "a problem
> in the field" or how advance in the science will be achieved by a "...
> decision to no longer publicly honor human rights violators..." when
> the author can only come up with a handful of really old examples out
> of millions of names. They are historical accidents and scrubbing
> history is at best difficult, and at worst a dangerous path with an
> ignoble past.
>
> There is no doubt that naming species after individuals carries the
> risk that said people willl be found out to be less than deserving in
> the future. We can all agree on Hitler, but only now in retrospective,
> whereas in 1933 it was probably no different to naming the species
> after a queen or king. Also, as Kenneth says, there is a very wide
> grey area regarding the definition of "awful people", in particular if
> we cast our gaze into the past. Are we now expected to constantly
> re-write history against the ever changing check-list of the
> undeserving whilst our moral and social conventions change through
> time?
>
> The author makes the dubious observation that the position of not
> applying the moral ideas of the present "ignores that there were large
> numbers of people who opposed those awful actions at the time..." but
> this also ignores that morality and social conventions evolve
> gradually and that at the time many different positions jostled for
> pre-eminence. If one wants to look to the past and retain the gems you
> have to be willing to confront the muck you will have to dig through.
> I can read and appreciate Kipling, Lovecraft or Woolf and at the same
> time reject their social perspectives which were very much rooted in
> the past. This means nuance, circumspection and empathy for our less
> enlightened past.
>
> A particularly worrying paragraph distils the real idea of the
> article: "Taxonomists have a role to play in who society decides to
> publicly honor, which is a small but real contributor to problems with
> diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM." Are we expected to name
> species based on what they did, but also how morally deserving they
> might be now and in the future as well as on checklists? Since this is
> an opinion, and I have no position to endanger I will say it outright,
> this is a daft article written without paying attention to logic,
> stability or what science is about. If we want to avoid similar cases
> in the future we can stop using patronyms and the problem is solved,
> but this is not the author´s intent of course.
>
> J
>
>
>
> On Sat, 9 Nov 2019 at 07:38, Geoff Read via Taxacom
> <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu> wrote:
>>
>>
>> It's a  tricky one.
>>
>> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scientists-should-stop-naming-species-after-awful-people/
>>
>> also the originator:
>> https://twitter.com/WhySharksMatter/status/1192790203037040647
>>
>> --
>> Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D.
>> Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
>> gread at actrix.gen.nz
>>
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>> Nurturing nuance while assaulting ambiguity for 32 some years,
>> 1987-2019.
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> Nurturing nuance while assaulting ambiguity for 32 some years, 1987-2019.
>


--
Geoffrey B. Read, Ph.D.
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
gread at actrix.gen.nz