Pluralism, Normative Naturalism, and Biological Taxonomy

Abstract

The discipline of biological taxonomy is rife with philosophical controversies. One of them is particularly relevant to the topic of this symposium, namely the question of taxonomic unity. Should biologists aim for a single correct classification of the world's organisms or should they allow a plurality of equally correct classifications?For those with little or no background in evolutionary biology, the suggestion of taxonomic pluralism might seem odd. Don't introductory biology texts as well as television nature shows suggest that there is a single correct way to sort the world's organisms? They do, but that advertised agreement masks a number of controversies that have raged in biology since Darwin's time. Consider the question of how to sort organisms into species. Currently there are no less than seven prominent definitions of the species category (Ereshefsky 1992a).