What is the classification system in biology — and does it even matter anymore? Alan C. Love argues that classification is everywhere in modern biology, from proteins to populations, and that the real question isn’t what the right answer is, but what work a classification is being put to. From quaking aspen to lichens to race and medicine — the philosophy of how we carve nature at its joints turns out to have serious consequences.
Alan C. Love is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Philosophy and Winton Chair in the Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota, and Director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science.
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#PhilosophyOfBiology #Evolution #Species
0:00 What is the landscape of classification in biology?
0:35 Why classification still matters despite old taxonomy
1:06 The value and number of classifications
1:35 What counts as an individual? The quaking aspen problem
2:23 Lichens and symbiosis — multiple entities as one
2:50 Different kinds of individuality — immunological, physiological, evolutionary
3:03 Is the question of species still relevant?
3:42 Different species concepts — biological, ecological, phylogenetic
4:59 Classification in the fossil record and paleontology
6:29 Classification by operant effect — race, gender, and medicine
7:09 What does a classification imply vs. what does it measure?
7:46 Population genetics and the limits of racial classification
8:29 Ashkenazi Jewish diseases — when fine-grained cuts are helpful
9:15 The mistake of assuming legitimacy in one context means legitimacy in all
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