Natural Kinds and Natural Kind Terms

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7956946
AutoresKathrin Koslicki (0000-0002-0868-7199, University of Colorado System, autor correspondente)
Ano2008
Volume3
Fascículo4
Páginas789-802
Data de publicação2008-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPhilosophy Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1747-9991 • E-ISSN: 1747-9991
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1747-9991.2008.00157.x
OpenAlexW2008333730
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas51

The aim of this article is to illustrate how a belief in the existence of kinds may be justified for the particular case of natural kinds: particularly noteworthy in this respect is the weight borne by scientific natural kinds (e.g., physical, chemical, and biological kinds) in (i) inductive arguments; (ii) the laws of nature; and (iii) causal explanations. It is argued that biological taxa are properly viewed as kinds as well, despite the fact that they have been by some alleged to be individuals. Since it turns out that the arguments associated with the standard Kripke/Putnam semantics for natural kind terms only establish the non‐descriptiveness of natural kind terms and not their rigidity, the door is open to analyze these terms as denoting traditional predicate‐extensions. Finally, special issues raised by physical and chemical kinds are considered briefly, in particular impurities, isotopes and the threat of incommensurability

Epistemology · Natural kind · Natural law · Physics · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science