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Especially for prokaryotes, how to define what is a species is an active problem in the philosophy of biology. IIRC, Laura Franklin-Hall at NYU has written abou

Especially for prokaryotes, how to define what is a species is an active problem in the philosophy of biology. IIRC, Laura Franklin-Hall at NYU has written about this (https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/laura-rebecca-franklin.html https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/laura-rebecca-franklin.html). In a research setting this is far from a trivial question. One lab's E.coli may show different characteristics than another lab's, even if they are the same strain.

toolslive 9y ago
Philosophers have been pondering on the definition of 'human' (and other categorizations) for at least 2000 years. The relation with this problem is that you can offer the following attempt at definition: "it's human if the direct ancestors are human". Of course, it fails ;) Another attempt is via attributes (fe, "if it has a head, arms, legs, and an IQ of at least X and DNA that has ..., it's human"). This also quickly fails. I think the current consensus amongst philosophers is that a binary categorization is impossible in these cases. ie, whatever the definition, you will either exclude things you want to be included and/or include things you don't want in there.
- etplayer 9y ago
  What are the current edge cases for 'human' and 'non-human' which makes the line so blurred that our common sense is no longer sufficient to judge, and we need to invoke philosophy, and further philosophy without input from biology?
  - eesmith 9y ago
    There are a set of questions about when human life starts. Is it when the sperm touches the egg? When the zygote forms? There is no firm answer, and the choice depends on one's philosophy. The US Supreme Court - and in this case I am suggesting that the courts are a sort of applied philosophy - took input from biology in deciding Roe v. Wade. Medical ethics, again a form of philosophy, says that human embryo experimentation must not continue past two weeks, based on input from biology. That's when the central nervous system starts to form, and marks the end of when the embryo can split into twins. It was also not believed possible to keep an embryo alive outside the womb that long, but now it's possible. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/02/516280895/embryo-experiments-reveal-earliest-human-development-but-stir-ethical-debate http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/02/51628089... If the definition of human is related to DNA, then is cancer human? What about immortal cell lines? Parasitic cancers like Canine transmissible venereal tumor? Were Neanderthals human? Denisovans?
  - toolslive 9y ago
    I just checked wikipedia on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem so which of the 26 taxonomy models are you referring to ? Clearly, it's an utter mess.

toolslive 9y ago

Philosophers have been pondering on the definition of 'human' (and other categorizations) for at least 2000 years. The relation with this problem is that you can offer the following attempt at definition: "it's human if the direct ancestors are human". Of course, it fails ;) Another attempt is via attributes (fe, "if it has a head, arms, legs, and an IQ of at least X and DNA that has ..., it's human"). This also quickly fails. I think the current consensus amongst philosophers is that a binary categorization is impossible in these cases. ie, whatever the definition, you will either exclude things you want to be included and/or include things you don't want in there.

etplayer 9y ago
What are the current edge cases for 'human' and 'non-human' which makes the line so blurred that our common sense is no longer sufficient to judge, and we need to invoke philosophy, and further philosophy without input from biology?
- eesmith 9y ago
  There are a set of questions about when human life starts. Is it when the sperm touches the egg? When the zygote forms? There is no firm answer, and the choice depends on one's philosophy. The US Supreme Court - and in this case I am suggesting that the courts are a sort of applied philosophy - took input from biology in deciding Roe v. Wade. Medical ethics, again a form of philosophy, says that human embryo experimentation must not continue past two weeks, based on input from biology. That's when the central nervous system starts to form, and marks the end of when the embryo can split into twins. It was also not believed possible to keep an embryo alive outside the womb that long, but now it's possible. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/02/516280895/embryo-experiments-reveal-earliest-human-development-but-stir-ethical-debate http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/02/51628089... If the definition of human is related to DNA, then is cancer human? What about immortal cell lines? Parasitic cancers like Canine transmissible venereal tumor? Were Neanderthals human? Denisovans?
- toolslive 9y ago
  I just checked wikipedia on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem so which of the 26 taxonomy models are you referring to ? Clearly, it's an utter mess.