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Zoological Nomenclature and Speech Act Theory

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Texts, Textual Acts and the History of Science

Part of the book series: Archimedes ((ARIM,volume 42))

Abstract

To know natural objects, it is necessary to give them names. This has always been done, from antiquity up to modern times. Today, the nomenclature system invented by Linnaeus in the eighteenth century is still in use, even if the philosophical principles underlying it have changed. Naming living objects still means giving them a sort of existence, since without a name they cannot be referred to, just as if they did not exist. Therefore, naming a living object is a process close to creating it. Naming is performed by means of a particular kind of text: original description written by specialists, and more often accompanied by other, ancillary texts whose purpose is to gain the acceptance and support of fellow zoologists. It is noteworthy that the actions performed by these texts are called “nomenclatural acts”. These texts and acts, together with related scientific and social relationships, are examined here in the frame of speech act theory.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ontological and other theoretical problems about the “nature”, essence, or existence of animal taxa, especially species, will not be examined (see Lherminier and Solignac 2005 for extensive discussion); for general philosophical problems about “natural objects” and their names, see e.g. Putnam (1973), Schwartz (1977), Kripke (1980), Li (1993), Recanati (2008), etc.

  2. 2.

    Although nomenclatural texts exist both in zoology and botany, the present paper will be devoted mostly to zoological texts (contrary to Daston (2004), a paper which partly covers this one, but from a different perspective).

  3. 3.

    Genesis 2: 19.

  4. 4.

    Blunt (1971).

  5. 5.

    “151. FUNDAMENTUM Botanices duplex est: Dispositio & Denominatio. (…) 210. DENOMINATIO alterum Botanices fundamentum, facta dispositione, nomina primum imponat.” (my translation).

  6. 6.

    Linnaeus 1751, p. 158.

  7. 7.

    See a comparable but different triangular figure in Recanati (2008), p. 155.

  8. 8.

    See again Lherminier and Solignac (2005).

  9. 9.

    Farber (1976).

  10. 10.

    Linnaeus (1758). The binomial nomenclature of plants was introduced earlier (Linnaeus 1753).

  11. 11.

    “Taxonomie” is the original spelling of the word as it was introduced in French by the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyrame de Candolle in 1813.

  12. 12.

    The word taxon, derived from taxonomie, was coined in 1828.

  13. 13.

    Réaumur (1734), p. 3 (my translation).

  14. 14.

    Minelli (2005).

  15. 15.

    See Huber (2007) for a discussion on non-availability of names published only electronically.

  16. 16.

    International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 1985, p. 182–229.

  17. 17.

    Simpson (1961), p. 19.

  18. 18.

    Mayr (1969), p. 5.

  19. 19.

    The only exceptions are “naked names” ( nomina nuda), see below.

  20. 20.

    In fact, as explained in the Code, the type is not the illustration but the specimen illustrated, even if it is impossible to localize the latter.

  21. 21.

    See e.g. International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 1999, articles 61–75. See also, as far as Botany is concerned, the fine paper by Daston (2004).

  22. 22.

    In the case of destruction or loss of the holotype, it is possible to designate a substitute called “neotype”.

  23. 23.

    Some authors also use the concept and the word “allotype” to designate among paratypes one specimen of opposite gender to the holotype.

  24. 24.

    See especially Hennig (1966).

  25. 25.

    It may have been used in plant nomenclature.

  26. 26.

    http://uio.mbl.edu/NomenclatorZoologicus/

  27. 27.

    Mayr (1942), p. 14–15.

  28. 28.

    ‘A Discovery’ (December 1941) [published as ‘On Discovering a Butterfly’ in The New Yorker (15 May 1943)] (Nabokov 2000, p. 274).

  29. 29.

    See e.g. Kripke (1980), etc.

  30. 30.

    Searle (1975, 1979).

  31. 31.

    Searle (1975); Ruiter (1993) (see especially pp. 60–62).

  32. 32.

    See e.g. Whitworth et al. (2007).

  33. 33.

    Russell (1918).

  34. 34.

    Wittgenstein (1922): “Was gezeigt werden kann, kann nicht gesagt werden” (§ 4.1212).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SPHERE (ex-REHSEIS; CNRS & University Paris Diderot), Université Paris 7, UMR 7219, Paris, France

    Yves Cambefort

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  1. Yves Cambefort
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. SPHERE (ex-REHSEIS; CNRS & University Paris Diderot), Université Paris 7, UMR 7219, Paris Cedex 13, France

    Karine Chemla

  2. IRIT, CNRS, Saint-Félix Lauragais, France

    Jacques Virbel

Appendices

Appendix 1. An Article About The Taxonomy of Crustaceans as an Example of Text Performing Primary Nomenclatural Acts

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Appendix 2. An Article About The Taxonomy of Beetles as an Example of Text Performing Secondary Nomenclatural Acts

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Cambefort, Y. (2015). Zoological Nomenclature and Speech Act Theory. In: Chemla, K., Virbel, J. (eds) Texts, Textual Acts and the History of Science. Archimedes, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16444-1_4

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