The Nature and Boundaries of Biological Species
The Nature and Boundaries of Biological Species
This chapter shows that Leibniz's analysis of the nature and boundaries of biological species is very different from his now well-known nominalist account of the species of, for example, mathematical objects, and even of ordinary physical objects. With respect to plants and animals Leibniz positions himself squarely in the species-fixist camp, like his contemporary John Ray, the English naturalist who insists that “the number of true species in nature is fixed and limited and, as we may reasonably believe, constant and unchangeable from the first creation to the present day.” Leibniz, like Ray, believes that all species were formed at the Creation and will remain fixed for all time, notwithstanding his simultaneous belief in the possibility of tremendous morphological change in a species over time and even of tremendous morphological change or “transformation” over the course of an individual creature's life.
Keywords: G. W. Leibniz, biology, biological species, John Ray, Creation
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