Francisco J. Goin

GOIN FJ

Issues in Palaeobiology: a Global View. Interviews and Essays

Scidinge Hall Verlag

Lugar: Zurich; Año: 2014; p. 114 - 121

(Se reproduce el primer párrafo de la contribución - No lleva resumen) 1.What are the most important problems in paleobiology? I don?t feel qualified to answer that question. Instead, I can tell you which are the topics that attract me more. The first is a general one, and affects not only paleobiology but all scientific disciplines except the ?exact? ones: the lack of a normalized language; briefly, an axiomatic system. In physics, mathematics, or logic, you describe knowledge on the basis of terms (words, symbols, numbers) that are univocal and refer to extremely precise aspects of nature. This is not the case of all the other sciences. The understanding, interpretation, and communication of what is a ?problem? and how is it ?solved? in paleobiology is, therefore, subjective. To put it simply, there are too many variables involved in the evolution of living things. There are too many aspects involved in the development of morphospaces, the ordering of ecosystems, or the resolution of adaptive niches. The matter of ?objectivity? in our discipline remains unsolvable. To put it in words of Dr. Alberto Riccardi, a paleontologist of the Museo de La Plata: as long as we take physics as the paradigm of scientific knowledge, this main epistemological problem of paleontology will never be solved.