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9 - Replacing ‘Species’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2023

John S. Wilkins
John S. Wilkins
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Summary

As I have noted, terms for species are at best polysemic (that is, they are a single word in a language with multiple and often incompatible meanings), and at worst species is a term with no meaning of any real scientific importance. Now we will consider several replacement concepts, and the evolutionary and genetic considerations that make them seemingly viable.

In Chapter 2 we considered the extent of the different definitions as applied to a simplified version of human evolution and genetics. One of those definitions included a historical aspect – monophyly.

Keywords

Speciestaxonomysystematicsconservationecologyclassificationkindsessentialismphylogenyevolutionspeciationadaptationcreationismspecies fixitybiodiversityrewildinganimal rightsspecies rightsexploitative capitalismtaxonomic inflation
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Chapter
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Understanding Species , pp. 123 - 130
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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