"uncompromising, single-minded"

[Barry Roth]

This might be the best opportunity to make a point I have had in mind for some time, namely, that there is ambiguity in the use of the term "system."  Ken's system is a system in the sense of "Systema Naturae," that is, a taxonomic formulation that is systematic (i.e., not haphazard, but organized on the basis of serious consideration of the data).  It is not a system in the sense of a methodological prescription that tells you in advance how to go about dealing with whatever data may arise and provides the algorithms for so doing.
The practice of "eclectism" (of which the Kinman system is surely just one example) apparently includes a willingness to recognize paraphyletic groups and a spirit of compromise.  These are relatively loose guidelines, which two or more individual workers, having devised their own taxonomies, could claim to have followed.  Those guidelines themselves do not provide advice for other parties to prefer one or the other of those taxonomies.  (Consider being asked to decide which of two such taxonomies is "the more compromising"!)  Without some additional criteria, such as "the better taxonomy is the one with fewer paraphyletic groups," I don't see how such a system does much to resolve conflict among differing views.
This is less of a criticism than an attempt to understand.
Barry
 Thomas Lammers <lammers at VAXA.CIS.UWOSH.EDU> wrote:Well, I don't think Ken is, really. His system is by its very nature, if I
understand it correctly, an attempt to *compromise* between the cladistic
approach and the traditional phyletic approach. He takes something from
each and creates something unique. That to me seems the essence of
compromise. You can criticize the system on its fundamental assumptions or on its details, but I do think it was created in the spirit of compromise,
of eclecticism. If Ken is unstinting in promoting his system, I don't see
that that is a problem. He certainly seems willing to modify it (all
classifications being hypotheses, after all) as new data arise.


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