ABSTRACT
This chapter depicts taxonomy as one of biology’s fundamental disciplines, but one that has a twofold nature that is not unlike map-making: the rigorously scientific description and quantification of biodiversity; and the translation of their results into a system of names and often, ranks. While grouping can be done objectively, ranking necessarily entails an executive decision. As a consequence, while species taxa can be real entities, there is no such thing as a single objective species category. These insights are summarised in an honest way of depicting species that also takes taxonomic practice into account. The second part of the chapter deals with the historistic philosophy of science of Kurt Hübner and its application to biological systematics (including taxonomy) as a potentially promising way to analyse the theoretical underpinning of the discipline beyond Popperian falsificationism, which has been dominant in biological systematics for a long time.
