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No apology needed (Reptilia Again)


Jaime,
No apology needed. I wouldn't say I felt insulted. It was more like a challenge that compelled me to defend my ideas, especially against the suggestion that I would use a non-osteological character like ectothermy/ endothermy to delimit taxa. Although I was trained as a neontologist, fossils have been part of my classifications from the very beginning.
Being very opinionated myself, I would be a psychological wreck if I took ever challenge as an insult, but I do respond to challenges, and expect challenges to be bounced back at me. Comes with the territory.
And some of the phrases I use, like "strict cladists" and "paraphylophobia" are taken as insults, when I really intend them to be a strong challenge to a classificatory philosophy (and methodology) which I believe will have unforeseen consequences (some of which Michael Benton is bringing up in his Biological Reviews paper).
I think such give and take is healthy and necessary, and ultimately we all want the same thing (a relatively stable classification system for information storage and communication). My view is that strict eclecticism and strict cladism each have their disadvantages, and that "middle ground" approaches have not been fully explored.
Cheers, Ken Kinman
******************************************************** 
From: "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>
To: kinman@hotmail.com
CC: dinosaur@usc.edu, rowe@psych.ucsb.edu, mkirkaldy@aol.com
Subject: Re: Reptilia Again....
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 18:58:07 -0700 (PDT)

I wrote:

<Please don't characterize people you do not have the
mentality of to assume their thoughts.>

  Ken, and to the rest of the list, this was not
intended as an insult. I realize, however, that I
seriously should have clarified my phraseology: I had
meant that the clause: "have the mentality" was in
reference to knowing the mind of (_mentalis_ of the
mind, of thought), rather than attacking your (Ken's)
mind. I understand that I offended you, and probably a
few others (at least), so on this score I seriously
appologize. I am sorry.

  Also, I had come extremely close to, if not
infringring the anti-_ad hominem_ rules of the list
with the implications at least that I had attacked
Ken's own thoughts. So in this offense to Ken and to
the rest of the list with special appologies to Mickey
and Mary, I really am sorry.

  Jaime A. Headden

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