Species as Gene Flow Communities

摘要

Werner Kunz's book, Do Species Exist?, presents a biologist's view of the species problem, a problem with a long history in the philosophy of biology as well as biology itself. The volume of published literature on the species problem has grown to immense proportions and much has already been said on the topic. Thus, every author addressing the issue today faces the increasingly difficult challenge of adding something new to what is already available. Kunz, however, does not aim to present any new empirical data that could shed new light on the problem, nor does he want to present any new philosophical arguments or viewpoints (p. 4). Rather, the novel feature of the book, Kunz writes, is to explain philosophical reasoning for biologists and to bring available philosophical tools to bear on taxonomic problems (ibid.). The book thus is aimed more at biologists than at philosophers of biology, as it aims to "raise biologists' awareness of one of the most difficult problems of taxonomy" (ibid.).