Viruses are real, virus species are man-made, taxonomic constructions

Scientists are committed to the study of real, tangible objects and tend to rely on facts rather than on speculation. This steadfast commitment to the real world partly explains the reluctance of some scientists to become involved in classifying the objects they study. Classifications tend to be perceived as purely conceptual constructions of the mind, useful for bringing some semblance of order into the bewildering variety of natural phenomena, but essentially arbitrary and unworthy of serious attention by scientists engaged in the study of nature. As stated by Milne [22] many are bored by taxonomy because they think it means spending a lifetime on whether a certain kind of beetle has five hairs on its bottom or seven - and then splitting the hairs. To many virologists, the current debate [2 - 5, 31, 33] on the appropriate way of writing the names of virus species may seem equally abstruse and boring, especially if they have never given a thought to the reason why virus species were introduced in viral taxonomy in the first place [30].