Re: TETRAPODS, PHYLOGENETIC TAXONOMY, AND CLEAR DEFINITIONS

["James R. Cunningham" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

> > Engineers are creators.  Like artists, you are building fresh and anew
> > something that didn't previously exist.  As such, within certain frameworks
> > (e.g., computer language, architectural constraints, etc.), you have greater
> > freedom to build things the way you see fit.
>
> > Scientists are discoverers.  Like explorers, we are trying to find something
> > that already exists.  (In the case of systematics, trying to recover the
> > historical pattern of descent with modification).  We may use certain tools
> > to analyse, label, and describe these patterns of nature, but we do not have
> > the liberty of creating them out of whole cloth.

I don't know the origin of  the snips above, but I percieve traces of 
stereotyping
.  Professionally, I do a good bit of forensic engineering.  When applying that
sub-specialty, I too, try to recreate factual conditions from partial evidence.
Were I to take the liberty of creating from whole cloth, or to reconstruct 'the 
way
I see fit', I'd be laughed out of court.  I think all our professions may be a 
bit
broader in scope than is generally recognized.
Best wishes,
Jim Cunnningham