What do Biologists Make of the Species Problem?

Acta Biotheoretica
Bruno PušićDamjan Franjević

Abstract

The concept of species is one of the core concepts in biology and one of the cornerstones of evolutionary biology, yet it is rife with conceptual problems. Philosophers of biology have been discussing the concept of species for decades, and in doing so they sometimes appeal to the views of biologists. However, their statements as to what biologists think are seldom supported by empirical data. In order to investigate what biologists actually think about the key issues related to the problem of species, we have conducted a survey on the sample of 193 biologists from the population of biologists from over 150 biology departments at universities in the US and the EU. This article presents and discusses the results of the survey. Some results confirm and others falsify the reiterated statements of philosophers of biology as to what biologists think, but all results we obtained should be informative and relevant for future discussions of the problem of species.

References

Jun 14, 2001·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·J Hey
Feb 21, 2002·Trends in Parasitology·Werner Kunz
May 27, 2003·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Massimo Pigliucci
Nov 26, 2003·Journal of Evolutionary Biology·M S Y Lee
Aug 27, 2005·Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences·Thomas A C Reydon
May 23, 2006·Infection, Genetics and Evolution : Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics in Infectious Diseases·M H V Van Regenmortel
Jun 10, 2006·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Jody Hey

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