Biological systematics is the battlefield between nominalism and realism, and never will the two meet, because Russell's paradox stands between them. It started with realism (ie, Parmenides), passed into nominalism via Aristotle and Linné, and then returned to realism via Hennig. The natural continuation is to pass another lap in the same circle, shorter this time, before it commences yet another lap in the same circle, all the time trying to reach the carrot in front of the donkey's nose, ie, the true classification, or the "true tree of life".
When will biological systematists understand that what they look for is Russell's paradox? When will they understand what they do?
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