SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS - FAILED INTUITIONS ABOUT ORGANISMS AND SPECIES

Treating species as individuals and not classes has been crucial to th e integration of evolutionary theory with modem systematics. Despite t he theoretically important role the concept of individuality plays in modern phylogenetic systematics and in evolutionary theory more genera lly, many have been content to rely on common-sense intuitions about w hat counts as an individual. One of the most often cited intuitions is that individuals should be defined intrinsically. Unfortunately, comm on-sense intuitions like this one have proven to be inadequate for ide ntifying and characterizing historical individuals (like species). An examination of real-world biological examples shows that our common-se nse intuitions are equally inadequate when applied to at least some bi ological organisms-the paradigm individuals.