Species membership is grounded in shared developmental pathways and population-level genetic clusters, which constitute intrinsic similarity at the appropriate level of abstraction.

?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

No one has weighed in yet. Be the first to share reasons for or against this statement.

Developmental pathways(as used in biology and philosophy of biology): The biological processes and stages that an organism goes through as it grows and develops from birth to adulthood.
Intrinsic similarity(as used in metaphysics): Genuine, built-in likeness based on what something actually is, rather than how it appears or what we arbitrarily decide.
Level of abstraction(as used in logic and systems thinking): A way of describing something at a particular level of detail—zooming in close to see tiny details, or zooming out to see the big picture without getting lost in specifics.
Population-level genetic clusters(as used in biology and philosophy of biology): Groups of organisms that share similar DNA patterns when you look at the whole population together, rather than individual differences.

Based on where you are in your exploration