[Taxacom] Clade age (was: Taxacom Digest)‏

[Curtis Clark]

On 11/12/2011 8:28 AM, Lynn Raw wrote:
> OK, you don't like definitions but without them others do not always know what you mean. Maybe it is time to forget the theory, stop spending time arguing about the unknowable and start taking a far more pragmatic approach of identifying our co-passengers on the planet.

Words can certainly be defined, since humans construct them. Natural 
phenomena can only usefully be described, since any definition can be 
falsified with additional data.

On the other hand, all useful scientific inquiry is informed by theory, 
either explicitly or implicitly, so it's useful to get our theories out 
in the open so we can better understand preconceptions that might 
mislead us.

-- 
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Professor, Biological Sciences                   +1 909 979 6371