Total Evidence Or Taxonomic Congruence: Cladistics Or Consensus Classification

Abstract

Miyamoto and Fitch's (1995, Syst. Biol. 44: 64-76) verificationist arguments for taxonomic congruence are evaluated and found to be unconvincing. In particular, there is no logical connection between the truth of phylogenetic hypotheses and the independence of the sets of characters analysed for their consensus. Further, the character set partitions emphasized by Miyamoto and Fitch must be considered arbitrary, because they are based on untestable process assumptions. (C) 1998 The Willi Hennig Society.