Lean, Christopher (2017) Preserving the Tree of Life. [Preprint]

Text Biodiversity Realism (Biology and Philosophy) Final.docx Download (156kB)

Abstract

Biodiversity is a key concept in the biological sciences. While it has its origin in conservation biology, it has become useful across multiple biological disciplines as a means to describe biological variation. It remains, however, unclear what particular biological units the concept refers to. There are currently multiple accounts of which biological features constitute biodiversity and how these are to be measured. In this paper, I draw from the species concept debate to argue for a set of desiderata for the concept of “biodiversity” that is both principled and coheres with the concept’s use. Given these desiderata, this concept should be understood as referring to difference quantified in terms of the phylogenetic structure of lineages, also known as the ‘tree of life’.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Lean, Christopher christopher.hunter.lean@gmail.com
Keywords:	Biodiversity, Phylogeny, Conservation Science, Taxonomy, Phylogenetic Diversity
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Biology > Ecology/Conservation
Depositing User:	Dr Christopher Lean
Date Deposited:	11 Sep 2017 16:56
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2017 16:56
Item ID:	13411
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Biology > Ecology/Conservation
Date:	2017
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/13411

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