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TY - GEN N1 - monograph, 59 pages, 2 tables ID - cogprints9956 UR - http://cogprints.org/9956/ A1 - Bartlett, Dr. Steven TI - THE SPECIES PROBLEM AND ITS LOGIC: Inescapable Ambiguity and Framework-relativity Y1 - 2015/09/04/ N2 - For more than fifty years, taxonomists have proposed numerous alternative definitions of species while they searched for a unique, comprehensive, and persuasive definition. This monograph shows that these efforts have been unnecessary, and indeed have provably been a pursuit of a will o' the wisp because they have failed to recognize the theoretical impossibility of what they seek to accomplish. A clear and rigorous understanding of the logic underlying species definition leads both to a recognition of the inescapable ambiguity that affects the definition of species, and to a framework-relative approach to species definition that is logically compelling, i.e., cannot not be accepted without inconsistency. An appendix reflects upon the conclusions reached, applying them in an intellectually whimsical taxonomic thought experiment that conjectures the possibility of an emerging new human species. AV - public KW - species problem KW - species concepts KW - definitions of species KW - similarity theory KW - logic of commonality KW - Theorem of the Ugly Duckling KW - Satosi Watanabe KW - Nelson Goodman KW - framework-relativity KW - L�wenheim-Skolem Theorem KW - Hilary Putnam KW - human speciation ER -