Species is a unit of measurement

Description

Short Abstract: The paper explores the use of the species concept in the context of diversity-as-a-measurement, specifically in microbial ecology using DNA sequencing, and examines its implications for the practical, epistemological, and theoretical dimensions of the species problem. The analysis considers the idealisation and de-idealisation procedures of measurements understood under model-based accounts. This analysis shows that the species concept is one of many sources of uncertainty in the diversity measurement process. The paper also discusses the practical implications of this analysis in microbial ecology and the broader context of conservation biology, as well as the epistemic role of the species concept as a unit of measurement and its relationship with the homonymy thesis. Finally, it explores the theoretical assumptions of the use of the species concept in diversity measurements and suggests that its explanatory importance in these contexts needs further exploration.

Period	20 Sept 2023
Event title	The 9th biennial meeting of the European Philosophy of Science Association
Event type	Conference
Location	SerbiaShow on map