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Biological Theory 5(4) 2010, 383–394 Structuralism in Phylogenetic Systematics Richard H. Zander Missouri Botanical Garden St. Louis, MO, USA [email protected] Abstract Systematics based solely on structuralist principles is non- science because it is derived from first principles that are inconsistent in dealing with both synchronic and diachronic as- pects of evolution, and its evolutionary models involve hidden causes, and unnameable and unobservable entities. Structural- ist phylogenetics emulates axiomatic mathematics through emphasis on deduction, and “hypotheses” and “mapped trait changes” that are actually lemmas and theorems. Sister-group- only evolutionary trees have no caulistic element of scientific realism. This results in a degenerate systematics based on pat- terns of fact or evidence being treated as so fundamental that all other data may be mapped to the cladogram, resulting in an apparently well-supported classification that is devoid of evolutionary theory. Structuralism in systematics is based on a non-ultrametric analysis of sister-group informative data that cannot detect or model a named taxon giving rise to a named taxon, resulting in classifications that do not reflect macroevo- lutionary changes unless they are sister lineages. Conservation efforts are negatively affected through epistemological extinc- tion of scientific names. Evolutionary systematics is a viable alternative, involving both deduction and induction, hypoth- esis and theory, developing trees with both synchronic and diachronic dimensions often inferring nameable ancestral taxa, and resulting in classifications that advance evolutionary the- ory and explanations for particular groups. Keywords classification, conservation, empiricism, evolution, phyloge- netics, structuralism (Author-generated reprint) January 21, 2011; accepted April 9, 2011 Biological Theory 5(4) 2010, 383–394. c 2011 Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research 383 Structuralism in Phylogenetic Systematics Biological systematics does not exist as independent of chang- deduction from, e.g., fossils and polyploidy, and induction to ing philosophies in other fields. Structuralism (Overton 1975; extend the theory to all evidence and species. It is founded Matthews 2001) was introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure on empiricism in rejecting hidden causes and unnamed or un- (1857–1913) to linguistics (Balzer et al. 1987; Barry 2002), observable entities. Moreover, it is nondoxastic because we and spread as a postmodern “rejection of all things past” to ar- require that all theories and assumptions be falsifiable or at chitecture, art, anthropology, literary theory, psychology, psy- least have some demonstrable causal connection with natural choanalysis, mathematics, and, as is now evident, to system- phenomena. The only quasi-fundamental patterns in science atics (Rieppel and Grande 1994: 249). It is intended to replace are certain laws and principles of physics (Giere 2005), and empiricism, which involves observation, data, and experiment even these are presented in such a way as to be subject to fal- leading to testable hypotheses, and empiricism rejects hidden sification. The magic is in the greatly advanced understanding causes and unnameable or unobservable entities. Structuralism of nature through scientific theorization based on all available emphasizes the importance of irreducible hidden structures facts, and competition between alternative theories. that are essentially engraved in the ground of being, exist at all Phylogenetics projects an aura of the exactitude and cer- times as axiomatic, and are not properly dealt with by theories tainty of mathematics. It is, however, not consistent because of changes or processes in nature (Piaget 1970; Gilbert et al. its apparently fundamental patterns are generated only by 1996; Brading and Landry 2006). Such ahistorical and syn- sister-group analysis. A whole dimension, accessible through chronic structure is, in structuralism, the ultimate reality that ancestor–descendant analysis, is ignored, yet is critical to evo- contributes to the human-mediated appearance of what we ob- lutionary theory as being directly involved in inferences of serve. Although the word “structuralism” is sometimes used to “descent with modification.” Phylogenetics is axiomatic in the refer to biological developmental design limitations on evolu- sense that sister-group trees are taken as lemmas and traits tion, in this article it refers to apparently fundamental nesting or distributions mapped thereon as theorems (though these patterns of similarity that imply evolutionary relationship. are incorrectly called “hypotheses”). It is largely deductive, citing the “hypothetico-deductivism” of Popper (1959) but substituting observed pattern for hypothesis. It rejects empiri- Science, Mathematics, and Phylogenetics cism in rejecting or at least relegating non-phylogenetically Science, mathematics, and phylogenetics may be compared informative data and in relying on unnameable “shared ances- with reference to patterns in nature. Mathematics is consistent tors” as hidden causes. And it is doxastic, as adherents believe in all dimensions, bounded only by Godel’s¨ Incompleteness that sister-group analysis of evolution is the only acceptable Theorem and certain intuitionist inroads on axioms (Kline basis for classification because it reflects facts of present-day 1980). It is axiomatic, using lemmas (proven statements used evolutionary relationships, not theory. Phylogenetics is nei- as logical stepping stones) and theorems (statements proven on ther mathematics nor science because of the categorical pre- the basis of previous true statements). It is entirely deductive scriptions and proscriptions in axiomatic structuralism (see (mathematical induction is not the same as inductive reason- Giere 2005). A phylogenetic tree is linguistically “pseudo- ing, it is actually a rigorous deduction). It ignores causes and referencing,” imbuing a representation with import it lacks, real entities. Moreover, it is doxastic, as we have faith that it and there is no real magic in that. is true because a deduction must be true if based on a true first principle (Chesterton [1933] 1956: 154). It is also somewhat Classification magical in that mathematical concepts, no matter how convo- luted or pyramidal, can be expected to work well every time Classification is the structured language by which coherent in real situations. groups in nature are represented. A protothetic classification Science (including evolutionary systematics as distinct (based on first principles) may be internally consistent and pre- from phylogenetics) is paraconsistent, as there may be con- cise (Rieppel 2011), but is empty without process-mediated tradictory theories but we need them to deal with nature; e.g., content (Gilbert et al. 1996; Rieppel 2010). Axiomatic ge- wave and particle theories of light, polythetic species descrip- ometry, for instance, did not replace empiricism when it was tions, and different species concepts. It does not, however, discovered, but established empiricism on a firm and regular- ignore any fundamental dimension, i.e., one not reducible to ized basis in both applied and research venues. It is tempting component terms, like length and force. It is non-axiomatic and to treat theoretically refractory but otherwise pattern-forming corrigible because scientific theory is expected to be continu- phenomenon as metaphysical Platonic structures, but any set ously tested by new facts. It is based on hypotheses and theories of phenomena can be treated as well-documented observa- involving causal explanations (Frost-Arnold 2010) with a foot- tions in search of a theory. Even the almost magical Prin- print in natural phenomena. It uses both deductive and induc- ciple of Least Action now has a well-established theoretical tive reasoning (Cleland 2001), say, theory of evolution using explanation through quantum effects in the mesocosm (Hanc 384 Biological Theory 5(4) 2010 Richard H. Zander et al. 2003). Structures discovered in fields other than mathe- 1990) is an extended metaphor that creates its own context. matics and physics are mostly real in some sense (“Meinong’s Metaphor is established, and is reified as part of the story or Jungles” sensu Jacquette 1996), yet, though important to prac- image. In phylogenetics, the structuralist problem is demon- titioners despairing of subjective or multiple analytic view- strated in the following figures of speech: simile: “evolution points, are hardly of the import and demonstrable value of is like a tree”; metaphor: “evolution is a tree”; pataphor:“the mathematical and physical axioms. There are, however, uses tree is evolution.” A phylogenetic tree is presented as a pat- for structuralist forms of analysis in an empirical context (van aphor. On the other hand, a structuralistically reified metaphor Fraasen 2007). The structuralist slogan, “theoretical knowl- of an evolutionary tree, the cladogram, only represents a set edge is knowledge of structure only,” on the other hand, can of nested parentheses modeling sister-group relationships of be pitted, in science, against the long-accepted completeness extant taxa. Although phylograms with branch lengths noted criterion that science must explain how things manifest them- on them seem to clothe the tree limbs with information, these selves as content in reality, namely through an inferred or ob- distances involve nodes, which are not named (except with the served process (Dewey 1950: 12; Giere 2009). Phylogenetics uninformative
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