I read a very interesesting paper yesterday which really made think about anumber of things. But instead of sharing all these rather confusing thoughts with you, I'm just going to throw a random question in here, mostly because I'm interesed in the opinions of other people on this topic. Also because I'm rather confused right now and this might help me in overcoming it.
Anyways, the question is as follows:
Where does the causal foundation of (morphologic) characters lay, in ontogeny or in phylogeny?
I hope I was able to formulate it in a proper matter, if not let me know and I try to explain it better. Also let me know what you think the answer to this question is.
And also, if you're interested in the article which caused my confusion, here it is:
Vergara-Sillva, F. (2009). Pattern Cladistics and the Realism-Antirelaism debate in the Philosophy of biology. Acta Biotheor,57. S. 269-294.
