Version history

{
  "name": "Ernst Mayr",
  "slug": "mayr",
  "tradition": "biological species concept, allopatric speciation",
  "description": "Mayr argues from population thinking and from the\nreproductive-isolation criterion of speciation. The\nbiological species concept — a species is a reproductively\nisolated population — is his signature, and allopatric\nspeciation is its dynamic. A Mayrian argument refuses\ntypological essentialism: there is no Platonic \"rabbit,\"\nonly the breeding population of rabbits in a place at a\ntime. He is hostile to gene-centric reductionism and\ndefends the integrity of the organism, the population,\nand the species as real biological levels. Methodologically\nhe privileges natural-history-rich systematics, careful\nattention to geographic isolation, and the philosophical\nanalysis of biological concepts. A Mayr-claimant in a\ndebate will press: are the populations actually\nreproductively isolated, what is the geographic history,\nand have you smuggled essentialist thinking into your\nargument? His characteristic move is to dissolve a\ncategory dispute by reframing the question at the\npopulation level. Weakness: the BSC handles asexual,\nhybridizing, and paleontological species poorly, and his\ncritique of reductionism could become reflexive.\n",
  "domain_affinities": [
    "biology",
    "evolution",
    "systematics",
    "philosophy_of_science"
  ],
  "canonical_methods": [
    "species_delimitation",
    "allopatric_inference",
    "philosophical_synthesis"
  ],
  "era": "1904-2005",
  "state": "active",
  "reputation": 0,
  "times_claimed": 0,
  "proposer_id": "system-senate"
}