TY - BOOK ID - 8277676 TI - The species problem PY - 2010 SN - 9780521196833 0521196833 9780511762222 9781107541078 9780511776397 051177639X 9780511773815 0511773811 0511762224 1107205239 1282655329 9786612655326 0511775636 0511772742 0511774877 1107541077 PB - Cambridge Cambridge University Press DB - UniCat KW - Species KW - Philosophy. KW - Biology KW - GBZ General Biology, Zoology & Biophilosophy KW - biophilosophy KW - biodiversity KW - species concepts KW - evolutionary biology KW - history of biology KW - naturalists KW - darwinism KW - Speciation (Biology) KW - Genetics KW - Hybridization KW - Organisms KW - Life sciences KW - Biomass KW - Life (Biology) KW - Natural history KW - Philosophy KW - Arts and Humanities UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:8277676 AB - There is long-standing disagreement among systematists about how to divide biodiversity into species. Over twenty different species concepts are used to group organisms, according to criteria as diverse as morphological or molecular similarity, interbreeding and genealogical relationships. This, combined with the implications of evolutionary biology, raises the worry that either there is no single kind of species, or that species are not real. This book surveys the history of thinking about species from Aristotle to modern systematics in order to understand the origin of the problem, and advocates a solution based on the idea of the division of conceptual labor, whereby species concepts function in different ways - theoretically and operationally. It also considers related topics such as individuality and the metaphysics of evolution, and how scientific terms get their meaning. This important addition to the current debate will be essential for philosophers and historians of science, and for biologists. ER -