Commenti da uno zoologo al testo de R. Obligado

Abstract

In front of the present ecological crisis, many authors refer to the responsibility of the Book of Genesis. An interpretation suggests that the naming of the species made by Adam was the symbolic key for the dominion and possession: humankind gives them a name and so they are his/her possession. On the contrary the operation of giving a name is the first biological scientific conclusion when humankind confronted with the biological problem of species. Animals are grouped in different entity, well characterized by a morphological point of view and for this reason, it is possible to give a name to these entities. It is the first concept of species developed when the first humans observed carefully the livings. In this case the book of Genesis doesn’t give us a normative perspective but only reports the first encounter of science with the concept of species.