what is the advantage?

Question

wht is the advantage of using scientific name than the common name in identifying an organism?

Answer 1

At the risk of misinterpetng the question....

I agree with what everyone else said that there is an advantage of using a common system of naming ****. But and at the same time I do not agree. I think it is a disadvantage overall of using our current system of using latin or greek or whatever.

The advantage of using scientific names rooted in latin or greek is that their is common ground so everyone as a reference point in referring to specific objects or facts.

But why latin or greek? Latin is dead....why not a common lingo?

If the purpose is to have everyone understand and express things in some uniform way, why not use plain simple language that everyone uses? Perhaps chinese or english spnaish since most people on the planet speak those languages.

It could be any active language. More people would understand things. Science is hard enough, and if science would be less difficult to master from a linguistic standpoint more energy can diverted to scientific concepts than obscure languge describing science. More peoplle could learn SCIENCE from using simple language.

I guess it is historical, since modern science was the advent of the european scientific revolution. And since all educated european people back then knew latin or greek, thats how science was expressed to capture the attention of most people.

This is probably similar to how the language in the Engilsh/American law is confusing...using latin... or whatever we get terrms like .tort...corpous.....in rem....etc which most people never heard of yet Legal concepts could just as easily be expressed in common english.

Another popular theory is that obscure language was used to justify the high prices/intellectual rankings of professionals such as lawyers, scientists, clergy..etc back then.

Today though, the use of simple language is much better to educate everyone and is actually advocated by scientists and lawyers, not for the "commoner's" sake but for people within their own field!

OBSCURE language SUCKS!

RESPONSE

wow i spend too much time on this site.

But to advocate my position again,

Yes latin is dead and it doesnt change. Which is an advantage I agree.

But this could be equally be true for any language. Once you define a term scientifically, in english or some other language other people use, then it does not have to change.

Once we all agree upon a word to refer to a specfic fact it doenst have to change..infact it shouldnt.

The fact that some terms in english for example in decribing yeast is generic when there is obvioulsy many species of yeast, does not mean that english or any other language is inadequate in describing the terms. There can many other additional words in a live language you can choose to describe something.

The mere fact that common yet dead language refers to a varity or particluar is of no monement..since for example i can say "HONDA" and refer to a line or family of of cars , but if i wanted to be more specific i can say "Honda Accord" all in english without latin...referring to the same object.

the advantage of using an active language is that everyone already has a sense to what that word or term means from their experiences. Much less hassle.

I studied science in undergrad and law professionally, and the over all sense that I get is that these obsucre words are not necessary. Although perhaps we have to live with it as historically artifacts pass from generation to generation.

From a physics perspective....there is no preferred inertial reference frame since all laws of science are equally valid ...this is also true when naming things...it really doesnt matter what we call it as long as we agree to what we are talking about.

But How useful is one from than another? The utility should be a function of common use...not obscurity.

Answer 2

Why use scientific names? -- Because common names are very local, and many times two different animals can have the exact same common name. By using scientific names people all over the world will be able to know exactly what species you are refering to.

Why use Latin (a dead language)? -- Because it is a dead language, Latin will not change over time. Think about how different the english language has become in just the past 200 years. I have a very hard time understanding old style english, because "living" languages will gradually change over time. Latin, on the other hand, is not going to change over time since it is a dead language (as in, there is no part of the world where Latin is the common language).

The second part was totally ignored by the other people that answered, but it is an important aspect of scientific names.

Answer 3

A scientific name usually refers to the Linnean classification of the species. This was introduced to apply some organisation to the naming, classification and heredity of species:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binomial_nomenclature

This is now used as a pan-national method for classifying species, grouping within Genera (first part of the name) and then individualising as species (second part of the name). However, there is no universal library of names, often the same species having been classified differently and independantly.

With the ever increasing numbers of species being discovered this poses a problem that has yet to be sorted out.

Answer 4

Common names are quite generic, and often you find two species with similar common names that are in no way related to each other.... one example that comes to mind is the name "lily" for a flower. There are plenty of flowers with the word "lily" as part of their name, but not all of them are related (e.g. lily, christmas lily, lily pilly).

Sometimes a common name does indicate relationship - e.g. "mulga" (a type of Australian tree), but the different species of the mulga are quite different in appearance to the point that only a really observant botanist would notice the things that relate them (there are swamp mulga which are quite prostrate, desert mulga, etc). Where a common name is indicative of relationship it often appears as the "genus" name for an organism with the species name being used to distinguish between the relations.

One common name you should all recognise is "yeast". Yeast is a generic term for prototypic fungal cells - these species can live as single celled organisms but many can also form simple colonies. For the yeasts, there are many genus names (e.g. Sacharomyces, Chryptococcus and Candida) and among those genuses usually more than one species.... this is important to know, because among a genus there can be harmful and beneficial species - Candida albicans can cause thrush which can be irritating, painful but not fatal, whereas Candida lipolytica can cause a fatal blood disease. BTW, you should never try to rid yourself completely of Candida albicans - only ever treat really severe outbreaks of C. albicans as this species is part of your normal flora and protects you from infection by really nasty buggers that don't belong (like C. lipolytica)! Candidas are opportunistic pathogens, generally harmless unless you have another infection or you have an immune disorder.

Answer 5

scientific names are very important as in world thr r many countries with their own languages different from others .n if a person from different country visit other country as he don't know the language of tht coutry it will be difficult for him 2 talk 2 tht people or 2 buy certain things. tht's why scientific names r used.

Answer 6

scientific name is used worldwide, as where a common is specific to region or dialect.

Answer 7

It's according to who your speaking to

Answer 8

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