“The Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics” (Malte Ebach)

Malte Ebach does in his Paraphyly Watch 3: Transitional Fossils, Miccrobes & Patrocladistics claim that Ashlock (1971) is the ”Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics”. It means that Malte deems “systematics” ( presumably biological systematics) before Hennig to be “Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics”. He discards the development of conceptualization and biological systematics for about 2,500 years to be the “Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics” . He returns to Parmenides’ inconsistent approach, calling Aristotle’s consistent synthesis of Parmenides’ and Heracleitos’ approaches and the following scientific advances reaching its height in the Linnean system the “Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics”. He’s not only against science as an approach, but moreover calls it the “Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics”.

It comes close for a non-cladist to call Malte Ebach the “Root of all Evil Blunders in systematics”, but I won’t. I just put myself in a questioning pose against Malte Ebach. Is this man sane? Does he talk about the living organisms we all see in front of our eyes or has he left reality? Does he consider a humpback whale to be a humpback whale, and a whale to be a whale? Or, does he claim that a humpback whale is not a humpback whale or that a whale is not a whale?

Does Malte Ebach know what every object is?  Is Malte Ebach God? Does he have the (impossible) ultimate key? Is Malte Ebach larger than Linn’e, Aristotle and Einstein? Will Malte Ebach go into the historical record as the person that uncovered science’s ambiguity and led biological systematics to unambiguity? Is Malte Ebach both the key and the ultimate understanding at the same time? Is Malte Ebach worth worshiping? Or, does he need treatment? 

Ashlock, P.D. (1971). Monophyly and associated terms. Systematic Zoology 20:63-69.