Taxacom: Definitions

[Richard Jensen]

Hi John,

In your most recent post, you referred to "vicariance cladists".  Could you
please provide a means for someone to determine if a person is a vicariance
cladist or not?  This may require your definitions of both terms, as the
latter, in particular, has gone through several iterations over the past 40
years or so.  Or, am I permitted to apply my own definitions to each term?
If the latter, then how will I know if we are writing about the same
thing?  It seems the definitions we use are necessary to prevent a repeat
of the "fraud" missives that currently dominated this list.

Cheers,

Richard

On Sat, Aug 26, 2023 at 12:46 AM John Grehan via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> So as not to confuse with other issues, I teased this item out. My view
> about definitions not mattering is in the context that definitions only
> state what one has already decided or what one thinks one already knows.
> Within those constraints definitions may matter, but they are just a
> summary of a certain knowledge or decisions, not a key to the unknown which
> is what science is concerned with. For example, if I were to define
> evolution as space + time + form, that may well be very informative to
> some, and not so informative to others. So, dealing with the unknown, the
> ascertainment of new knowledge, definitions really don't matter. But of
> course thousands may think otherwise, and that's OK with me too.
>
> Cheers, John
>
> --
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-- 
Richard Jensen, Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556