The Nature of Classification Relationships and Kinds in the Natural Sciences

About this book

Discussing the generally ignored issue of the classification of natural objects in the philosophy of science, The Nature of Classification focuses on knowledge and social relations, and offers a way to understand classification as a necessary aspect of doing science.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. The Nature of Science
2. Nature and Classification
3. Scientific Classification
4. Homology and Analogy
5. Monsters and Misclassifications
6. Observation, Theory and Domains
7. Radistics: A Neutral Terminology
8. Worth the Knowing

Bibliography
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

John S. Wilkins is Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Associate Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia. He works on evolution and religion, the philosophy of taxonomy, and the history of biology. He has published on cognition, cultural evolution, the philosophy of science, and on science communication.

Malte C. Ebach is Senior Lecturer in Biogeography at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and has published on systematic and biogeographical theory and methods. He is an editor for the Journal of Biogeography, Zootaxa and Editor-in-Chief of the Species and Systematics book series.