Strange Question - electrophoresis

[John Grehan]

The species thing is also a somewhat arbitrary
>human construct.
 
>Doug Dawn.
>Berkeley, CA
>Monterrey, Mexico
 
I would venture to add that species may also be regarded as having actual
existence so is not arbitrary. What I see as arbitrary is the desire or
practice
of many systematists/taxonomists looking for an essential feature that
is the essence of a species. This approach assumes that species have
essence (a spatiotemporally unrestricted quality that makes the species what
it is regardless of place or time).
 
An alternative is to regard species as having no essence, but boundary
limits (morphological, spatial, temporal) that can be diagnosed, but since
species evolve (the usual assumption) these features may change, and
therefore cannot qualify as essential to the species (essences do not evolve).
 
The difficulty of diagnosis notwithstanding, the species does not become
arbitrary any more than a disease. Delimiting one taxonomic rank from
another (species-subspecies etc.) may not be standardised and perhaps
this qualifies as arbitrary, but decision still needs to be specified so its
testable in this respect.
 
John Grehan