This book was listed as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title in 2011.

Defining Species: A Sourcebook from Antiquity to Today provides excerpts and commentary on the definition of «species» from source material ranging from the Greeks, through the middle ages, to the modern era. It demonstrates that the logical meaning of species is in direct contrast to the use of kind terms and concepts in natural history and biology, and that the myth that biologists or natural historians were ever essentialists about kinds is mistaken.

The Author: John S. Wilkins is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Species: A History of the Idea (2009), and works on cultural evolution, the philosophy of biology and the interface of religion and biology.