Taxonomy and Why History of Science Matters for Science
A Case Study
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3373576 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Hamilton (0000-0003-4062-2296), Quentin D Wheeler (0000-0002-9621-1480, Arizona State University) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 331-340 |
| Publication date | 2008-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Isis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/588691 |
| PMID | 18702402 |
| OpenAlex | W1998696035 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 17 |
The history of science often has difficulty connecting with science at the lab-bench level, raising questions about the value of history of science for science. This essay offers a case study from taxonomy in which lessons learned about particular failings of numerical taxonomy (phenetics) in the second half of the twentieth century bear on the new movement toward DNA barcoding. In particular, it argues that an unwillingness to deal with messy theoretical questions in both cases leads to important problems in the theory and practice of identifying taxa. This argument makes use of scientific and historical considerations in a way that the authors hope leads to convincing conclusions about the history of taxonomy as well as about its present practice
Argument (complex analysis · Biology · Epistemology · Sociology · Taxonomy (biology · Ecology · Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies · Genetic diversity and population structure · Philosophy · Species Distribution and Climate Change
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,31 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |