Part I. The Interrelationships of Organisms: 1. What this book is about; 2. Classification; Part II. Systematics: Exposing Myths: 3. Relationship diagrams; 4. Essentialism and typology; 5. Monothetic and polythetic taxa; 6. Non-taxa or the absence of –phyly: paraphyly and aphyly; Part III. The Cladistic Programme: 7. Parameters of classification: ordo ab chao; Part IV. How to Study Classification: 8. Modern artificial methods and raw data; 9. How to study classification: consensus techniques and general classifications; 10. How to study classification – 'total evidence' vs 'consensus', character congruence vs taxonomic congruence, simultaneous analysis vs partitioned data; 11. How to study classification: natural methods I – consensus revisited; 12. How to study classification: natural methods II – beyond method, the philosophy of three-item analysis; Part V. Beyond Classification: 13. Beyond classification: how to study phylogeny; 14. The separation of classification and phylogenetics; 15. Further myths and misunderstandings.

'The authors … are well situated to consider and elaborate on cladistic philosophy and applications in biological and evolutionary studies. This volume … will provide a solid background in the general study of classification, the major considerations for determining taxon relationships, a bit of history, and solid discussion on the use and theory of cladistics with various examples and citations for reference.' S. T. Meiers, Choice