Darwin-L Message Log 8:108 (April 1994)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

---

<8:108>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu  Sat Apr 30 18:54:01 1994

Date: Sat, 30 Apr 1994 19:54:18 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Names and essences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

A friend of mine who is interested in systematic nomenclature and its
relation to essentialism recently asked me the following question:

  I want to say that essentialists tend to think that certain names are
  "correct" or "proper" for certain things because they tend to view names
  as abbreviated descriptions of essences.  It's fairly obvious that they do
  this, but I can't find anything written about it.  Do you know of anything
  that I'm overlooking?  Nobody seems to say much about the names
  themselves.  Thanks.

His point seems correct to me, but I can't come up with any specific
references either.  Can any of our other Darwin-L members help?  If so
please feel free to reply to my friend directly (Kevin de Queiroz,
mnhvz082@sivm.si.edu), or to the list as a whole and I will forward your
answers.

Many thanks.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Center for Critical Inquiry and Department of Biology
100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.

---

Your Amazon purchases help support this website. Thank you!