Kluge Arnold G
Acta Biotheor. 2009 Jun;57(1-2):171-86. doi: 10.1007/s10441-009-9070-4. Epub 2009 Feb 4.
Deduction leads to causal explanation in phylogenetic inference when the evidence, the systematic character, is conceptualized as a transformation series. Also, the deductive entailment of modus tollens is satisfied when those kinds of events are operationalized as patristic difference. Arguments to the contrary are based largely on the premise that character-states are defined intensionally as objects, in terms of similarity relations. However, such relations leave biologists without epistemological access to the causal explanation and explanatory power of historical statements. Moreover, the prediction-making to which those kinds of relations are limited in practice can lead to a category error--the mental conversion of an abstraction (the classes defined in terms of similarity relations) into a thing (such as an historical individual). The latter practices and problems characterize pattern cladistics, taxa being interpreted as homeostatic property cluster natural kinds, and other instrumentalist research programs.
在系统发育推断中，当证据（系统特征）被概念化为一个转变系列时，演绎推理会导向因果解释。此外，当这些类型的事件被操作化为祖先差异时，否定后件式的演绎蕴含就得到了满足。相反的论点主要基于这样一个前提，即特征状态是根据相似关系，作为对象被内涵地定义的。然而，这种关系使生物学家无法从认识论上获得对历史陈述的因果解释和解释力。此外，在实践中，那些关系所局限的预测会导致一种范畴错误——将一个抽象概念（根据相似关系定义的类别）在思维中转换为一个事物（比如一个历史个体）。后一种实践和问题是模式分支分类学、将分类单元解释为稳态属性簇自然类以及其他工具主义研究项目的特征。
