posted by dennisn on March 19th, 2008 at 9:08AM
Sure, at the molecular level -- but practically, we have very few and rigid criteria for defining chickens (they have feathers, white shells, etc, etc) -- the scientific classification into kingdoms phylums etc -- the chicken being "gallus domesticus".
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posted by Driusan on March 19th, 2008 at 6:34PM
We don't have clear definitions for classifying chickens. You can always pluck the feathers off a chicken. It would still be a chicken. You can defeather, behead, and cook a chicken so that it looks nothing like what an average chicken looks like. It'll still be "a chicken."
Even if that wasn't the case and we did have rigid criteria of what is and isn't a chicken, the definition is being retroactively applied. You're starting from what you (or whoever is defining it) arbitrarily want to classify as "a chicken" and coming up with a definition that suits your whims. You can come up with the most rigorous definition of "chicken" that you want and it will still tell you more about the person who came up with the definition then it will tell you about chickens. |
