Genes, Categories, and Species: The Evolutionary and Cognitive Cause of the Species ProblemOxford University Press, 2001 M07 19 - 240 páginas In Genes, Categories and Species, Jody Hey provides an enlightening new solution to one of biology's most ironic and perplexing puzzles. When Darwin showed that life evolves, and that it does so by natural selection, he transformed our understanding of living things. But the very question Darwin addressed-the nature of species-continues to pose an awkward conundrum for biologists. Despite enormous efforts by a great many scholars, biologists still cannot agree on how to identify species or even how to define the word "species." Genes, Categories, and Species is not like other books on the species problem, for it does not begin by asking, "What is a species?" Instead, it focuses on the very fact that biologists are stumped by species and their curious behavior in coping with that uncertainty. Faced with a persistent conundrum-and no lack of data on the subject-biologists who ponder the species problem have ceased to ask the most essential of scientific questions: "What new information do we need to resolve the problem?" This is the question that motivates this book and leads to the discoveries it reveals. The answer to the species problem lies not with the processes and patterns of biological diversity, Hey contends, but rather in the way the human mind perceives and categorizes that diversity. The promise of this book is twofold. First, it allows biologists to understand the causes of the species problem and to use this knowledge to avoid the major confusions that arise over species. Second, with its explanation of the species problem, it gives scholars and students of human nature a humbling example of how ill-suited the human mind is for certain kinds of scientific questions. |
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Genes, Categories, and Species: The Evolutionary and Cognitive Cause of the ... Jody Hey Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Genes, Categories, and Species: The Evolutionary and Cognitive Causes of the ... Jody Hey Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Genes, Categories, and Species: The Evolutionary and Cognitive Cause of the ... Jody Hey Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Términos y frases comunes
adaptation arise ary groups aspects basic behavior biological diversity Biological Species Concept boundaries branching cause cells chapter circumstances cladistic classical common consider context correspond criteria Darwin debate definition of species descendants described devise distinct DNA replication DNA sequence entities in nature evolution evolutionary biologists evolutionary history evolutionary processes evolved example exist fractal fuzzy ganisms gene exchange gene tree genetic drift genome groups of organisms hierarchical higher taxa human hybrids idea indistinct kinds of organisms language learning lutionary Mayr meaning method mind monophyletic monophyly multiple mutation natural kinds natural selection nominalist occur particular patterns persist phylogenetic populations prototype effects question real entities real evolutionary groups real species real world reality reason recognize recombination recurrence refer replication reproduction scientists share similar simple species category species concept species problem species taxa symbol systematics systematists taxon theory things tion tionary groups typological thinking uncertainty understanding vague word