Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T15:12:00.031Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

For Pluralism and Against Realism About Species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

P. Kyle Stanford
P. Kyle Stanford*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy University of California, San Diego
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I argue for accepting a pluralist approach to species, while rejecting the realism about species espoused by P. Kitcher and a number of other philosophers of biology. I develop an alternative view of species concepts as divisions of organisms into groups for study which are relative to the systematic explanatory interests of biologists at a particular time. I also show how this conception resolves a number of difficult puzzles which plague the application of particular species concepts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 70 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I am grateful to Bruce Glymour, Josh Kohn, Aarre Laakso, Alyssa McIntyre, Martin Rudwick, and especially Philip Kitcher for helpful comments, suggestions and guidance. This paper was considerably improved by the comments of an anonymous referee for Philosophy of Science. The errors are, of course, my own.

This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author; Department of Philosophy; 3103 Galbraith Hall, 0302; University of California at San Diego; La Jolla, CA 92093-0302; USA.

References

Coleman, W. (1964), Georges Cuvier, Zoologist; A Study in the History of Evolution Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674283701CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Futuyma, D. (1979), Evolutionary Biology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Goerke, H. ([1966] 1973), Linnaeus. Translated by Lindley, D. Originally published as Carl von Linne: Arzt, Naturforscher. Systematiker, 1707–1778 (Stuttgart: Wissenschafliche Verlagsgesellschaft). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Grant, V. (1981), Plant Speciation. 2d ed. New York: Columbia University Press.10.7312/gran92318CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, A. (1954), Mammalian Hybrids. Famham Royal, England: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux.Google Scholar
Gray, A. (1958), Bird Hybrids. Farnham Royal, England: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux.Google Scholar
Hennig, W. ([1950] 1966), Phylogenetic Systematics. Translated by D. Davis and R. Zangerl. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Hubbs, C. (1955), “Hybridization Between Fish Species in Nature”, Systematic Zoology 4: 1–20.10.2307/2411933CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1984a), “Against the Monism of the Moment: A Reply to Elliott Sober”, Philosophy of Science 51: 616–630.10.1086/289208CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1984b), “Species”, Philosophy of Science 51: 308–333.10.1086/289182CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1987), “Ghostly Whispers: Mayr, Ghiselin, and the ‘Philosophers’ on the Ontological Status of Species”, Biology and Philosophy 2: 184–191.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1989a), “Explanatory Unification and the Causal Structure of the World”, in Kitcher, P. and Salmon, W., (eds.), P. Kitcher and W. Salmon, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 410–505.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1989b), “Some Puzzles About Species”, in Ruse, M., (ed.), M. Ruse, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 183–208.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1991), “Pluralism, Realism and Unification”, unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1993), The Advancement of Science: Science Without Legend, Objectivity Without Illusions. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kripke, S. (1980), Naming and Necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1963), Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674865327CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayr, E. (1976), Evolution and the Diversity of Life: Selected Essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mayr, E. (1987), “The Ontological Status of Species: Scientific Progress and Philosophical Terminology”, Biology and Philosophy 2: 145–166.Google Scholar
Mishler, B. and Donoghue, M. (1982), “Species Concepts: A Case for Pluralism”, Systematic Zoology 31: 491–503.10.2307/2413371CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, W. (1977), “An Evaluation of Narrow Hybrid Zones in Vertebrates”, Quarterly Review of Biology 52: 263–277.10.1086/409995CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naef, A. (1919), Idealistische Morphologie und Phylogenetik; Zur Methodik der Systematischen Morphologie. Jena: G. Fischer.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1975), Mind, Language and Reality: Philosophical Papers, vol. 2. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511625251CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Remington, C. (1968), “Suture-zones of Hybrid Interaction Between Recently Joined Biotas”, Evolutionary Biology 2: 321–428.Google Scholar
Rieppel, O. (1988), Fundamentals of Comparative Biology. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag.Google Scholar
Riley, H. (1938), “A Character Analysis of Colonies of Iris fulva and I. hexagona var. giganticaerulea”, American Journal of Botany 29: 323–331.10.1002/j.1537-2197.1942.tb14015.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruse, M. (1973), The Philosophy of Biology. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Splitter, L. (1988), “Species and Identity”, Philosophy of Science 55: 323–348.10.1086/289440CrossRefGoogle Scholar