DAVIS, JERROLD. L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. - Linnaean taxonomy: a viable system for the new millenium?
The current system of biological classification and nomenclature (the
"Linnaean system"), as developed over the past two and a
half centuries, has been criticized of late as being inconsistent with
scientific thought. Under the banner of "phylogenetic
systematics," critics have claimed that the Linnaean system is
incompatible with modern phylogenetics, and have proposed an
alternative, the "Phylocode," or PC nomenclatural system,
which is intended to supplant the Linnaean system. Proponents of the
PC system have asserted that the Linnaean system is fatally
incompatible with evolutionary theory, that it inhibits scientific
inquiry, that the PC system, in contrast, is a necessary component of
the ongoing evolutionary synthesis, and that it also will provide
greater nomenclatural stability. In this symposium, systematists who
use the Linnaean system will evaluate its philosophical underpinnings,
goals, and practical utility, and compare its qualities to those of
the proposed PC system. Specific arguments made by proponents of the
PC system will be considered, and the relative merits of the Linnaean
and PC systems will be evaluated with regard to a variety of
subdisciplines within systematics, including monography, floristics,
paleobotany, cladistics, and the use of nomenclatural types
Key words: cladistics, Linnaean nomenclature, phylocode, phylogenetics, taxonomy