Anthony Cerrato  wrote:

> (BTW, are males and females technically
> considered to be sub-species?)

Finally, something I can speak of with some authority...

Yes. Technically, any class that can be further dividied is a genus, and
that into which it can be divided according to its predicates is a
species. Since under the Aristotlelian logic, a species is a genus if it
has subaltern species, these subaltern species must be subspecies.

Of course, everybody made exceptions for living beings...

"... if anyone utters such a proposition as ... "Argus was a mastiff,"
to what head of Predicables would such a Predicate be referred? Surely
our logical principles would lead us to answer, that it is the
_Species_; since it could hardly be called an Accident, and is
manifestly no other Predicable. And yet every Naturalist would at once
pronounce that Mastiff, is no distinct Species, but is only a _variety_
of the Species Dog. ...
.... the solution of the difficulty is to be found in the peculiar
technical sense ... of the word "Species" when applied to _organized
Beings_: in which case it is always applied (when we are speaking
strictly, as naturalists) to individuals as are supposed to be
_descended from a common stock_, or which _might_ have so descended;
_viz._ which resemble one another (to use M. Cuvier's expression) as
much as those of the same stock do."

Richard Whatley, Archbishop of Dublin, _Elements of Logic_ Ninth
(octavo) ed. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Original edition, 1826, p186.

I am sure this will clarify the matter no end.

[moderator's note: I stand (really -- okay, now I'm sitting.) in 
awe. - JAH]

-- 
John Wilkins
john_SPAM{at}wilkins.id.au   http://www.wilkins.id.au
"Men mark it when they hit, but do not mark it when they miss" 
                                               - Francis Bacon
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