How natural a kind is "Eukaryote?"

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4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Systematics balances uneasily between realism and nominalism, uncommitted as to whether biological taxa are discoveries or inventions. If the former, they might be taken as natural kinds. I briefly review some philosophers' concepts of natural kinds and then argue that several of these apply well enough to "eukaryote." Although there are some sticky issues around genomic chimerism and when eukaryotes first appeared, if we allow for degrees in the naturalness of kinds, existing eukaryotes rank highly, higher than prokaryotes. Most biologists feel this intuitively: All I attempt to do here is provide some conceptual justification.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology
Volume6
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology

PubMed: MeSH publication types

  • Journal Article

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