I'm looking for somewhat authoritative, or at least citable references that criticize the endeavors of systematics as being unscientific, outdated, etc.
Thanks, Richard! I needed some refs for an essay on whether taxonomy is a scientific endeavor at all. That's finished and delivered. But your new book is interesting anyhow. I saw you made the Introduction chapter available on Research Gate. That's really helpful.
The essence of science is to see if one can falsify an hypothesis.Those that survive explain what we observe. Taxonomy is no different - species and other taxa are just hypotheses in a sense and in tha absence of falsification remain as valid taxa. Cladistics and phylogenetics are just tools in this game.
Yes, indeed. The only real criticism I came across was the lack of originality - the stamp collecting caricature. Arguably, if, say, 1000 species of fossil marine foraminifera are described, not all of those descriptions will be highly original. But then originality is one of the more peripheral criteria for good science.