A (not-so-radical) solution to the species problem

Biology and Philosophy 10 (3):339-356 (1995)
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Abstract

What are species? One popular answer is that species are individuals. Here I develop another approach to thinking about species, an approach based on the notion of a lineage. A lineage is a sequence of reproducing entities, individuated in terms of its components. I argue that one can conceive of species as groups of lineages, either organism lineages or population lineages. Conceiving of species as groups of lineages resolves the problems that the individual conception of species is supposed to resolve. It has added the virtue of focusing attention on the characteristic of species that is most relevant to understanding their role in evolutionary processes, namely, the lineage structure of species.

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Citations of this work

What is Wrong with Extinction?Erik Persson - 2008 - Dissertation, Lund University
Changing conceptions of species.Bradley E. Wilson - 1996 - Biology and Philosophy 11 (3):405-420.

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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.
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.
Are Species Really Individuals?David L. Hull - 1976 - Systematic Zoology 25:174–191.

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