Discussion: Phylogenetic species concept: Pluralism, monism, and history [Book Review]

Biology and Philosophy 12 (2):225-232 (1997)
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Abstract

Species serve as both the basic units of macroevolutionary studies and as the basic units of taxonomic classification. In this paper I argue that the taxa identified as species by the Phylogenetic Species Concept (Mishler and Brandon 1987) are the units of biological organization most causally relevant to the evolutionary process but that such units exist at multiple levels within the hierarchy of any phylogenetic lineage. The PSC gives us no way of identifying one of these levels as the privileged level on which taxonomic classifications can be based.

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Christopher D. Horvath
Illinois State University

Citations of this work

Species are not uniquely real biological entities.Brent D. Mishler - 2009 - In Francisco José Ayala & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in philosophy of biology. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 110--122.
The Origins of Species Concepts.John Simpson Wilkins - 2003 - Dissertation, University of Melbourne

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References found in this work

A Radical Solution to the Species Problem.Michael T. Ghiselin - 1974 - Systematic Zoology 23 (4):536–544.
Phylogenetic Systematics.Willi Hennig - 1966 - University of Illinois Press.
A matter of individuality.David L. Hull - 1978 - Philosophy of Science 45 (3):335-360.
Species.Philip Kitcher - 1984 - Philosophy of Science 51 (2):308-333.

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