Classification, evolution, and the nature of biology
Historically, naturalists who proposed theories of evolution, including Darwin and Wallace, did so in order to explain the apparent relationship of natural classification. This book begins by exploring the intimate historical relationship between patterns of classification and patterns of phylogeny. However, it is a circular argument to use the data for classification.
Print Book, English, 1992
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England], 1992
Classification
x, 403 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521305822, 9780521315784, 0521305829, 0521315786
24247430
Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Patterns of classification; 3. Patterns of phylogeny; 4. Homology and the evidence for evolution; 5. Geological and geographical evidence; 6. Methods of classification: the development of taxonomy; 7. Methods of classification: phenetics and cladistics; 8. Methods of classification: the current debate; 9. Classification and the reconstruction of phylogeny; 10. Is systematics independent?; 11. Mechanisms of evolution: Darwinism and its rivals; 12. Mechanisms of evolution: the synthetic theory; 13. Scientific knowledge; 14. Philosophy and biology; References; Author index; Subject index.