The Nature of Classification Relationships and Kinds in the Natural Sciences

The Nature of Classification discusses an old and generally ignored issue in the philosophy of science: natural classification. It argues for classification to be a sometimes theory-free activity in science, and discusses the existence of scientific domains, theory-dependence of observation, the inferential relations of classification and theory, and the nature of the classificatory activity in general. It focuses on biological classification, but extends the discussion to physics, psychiatry, meteorology and other special sciences.

John S. Wilkins is Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and Associate Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia. He works on evolution and religion, the philosophy of taxonomy, and the history of biology. He has published on cognition, cultural evolution, the philosophy of science, and on science communication.

Malte C. Ebach is Senior Lecturer in Biogeography at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and has published on systematic and biogeographical theory and methods. He is an editor for the Journal of Biogeography, Zootaxa and Editor-in-Chief of the Species and Systematics book series.
 

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Nature of Science
2. Nature and Classification
3. Scientific Classification
4. Homology and Analogy
5. Monsters and Misclassifications
6. Observation, Theory and Domains
7. Radistics: A Neutral Terminology
8. Worth the Knowing
Bibliography
Index