"John Wilkins"  wrote in message
news:c4ak8j$1491$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> 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.

Excellent explanation. But what is a class... 

> 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]

Me too! Quite impressive...and by an Archbishop too. I get
the gist of it tho, although I can see where there might be
some grey areas. And when you get down to the pre-biotic
chemical precursor/ancestors of life (DNA, RNA, polymeric
enzymes, etc.) we get completely fuzzy as to the
subdivisions of life.       ...tonyC

> -- 
> 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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