Did the German entomologist Willi Hennig fuse or confuse science with faith?
The German entomologist Willi Hennig (called “the father of cladistics”) turned biological systematics from classifying biodiversity using the Linnean system into a belief in a single true tree of life (today called “cladistics”), thereby apparently fusing science (ie, biological systematics) with faith (for different religious beliefs in a tree of life, see Wikipedia).
It means that Hennig either turned biological systematics into a religion, ie, the belief in categories, or turned religion into science, the former confusing science with faith and the latter fusing faith with science. So, the question is: did Hennig fuse or confuse science with faith?
(Interestingly, this approach only acknowledges paradoxes (called “clades”), meaning that the question also can be framed as: are paradoxes real or abstract? If the answer is “abstract”, then the approach is something as strange as a practical search for a brain ghost, whereas if the answer is “real”, then its object of faith, ie, the tree of life, can’t be found per definition (as being a paradox). In both cases, the approach is thus a vain practical search for a void.)
Another contribution to understanding of conceptualization http://menvall.wordpress.com/
2012-11-22 03:21:57
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