Natural Kinds and Natural Kind Terms
Myth and Reality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8398682 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Soren Haggqvist (0000-0002-8170-598X, Stockholm University, corresponding author), Åsa Wikforss (0000-0002-8662-6770, Stockholm University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 911-933 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-0882 • E-ISSN: 1464-3537 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/bjps/axw041 |
| OpenAlex | W2799456110 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 49 |
The article examines the role of natural kinds in semantic theorizing, which has largely been conducted in isolation from relevant work in science, metaphysics, and philosophy of science. We argue that the Kripke–Putnam account of natural kind terms, despite recent claims to the contrary, depends on a certain metaphysics of natural kinds; that the metaphysics usually assumed—micro-essentialism—is untenable even in a ‘placeholder’ version; and that the currently popular homeostatic property cluster theory of natural kinds is correct only to an extent that fails to vindicate the Kripke–Putnam account. This undermines the metasemantics required for anti-descriptivist semantics. 1 Introduction2 From Semantics to Metaphysics3 Metaphysics, Part I: The Demise of Micro-essentialism 3.1 Original micro-essentialism 3.2 Placeholder essentialism4 Metaphysics, Part II: Homeostatic Property Cluster Theory5 Prospects for Natural Kind Term Semantics
Aesthetics · Epistemology · Essentialism · Identity (music) · Metaphysics · Natural (archaeology) · Natural kind · Philosophy of biology · Philosophy of science · Property (philosophy) · Semantics (computer science) · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Science and Climate Studies
Reasons to doubt microstructural essentialism about chemical elements
Perspectival Realism
Essential Properties Are Super-Explanatory
A defense of placeholder essentialism
Homeostatic Property Cluster Theory without Homeostatic Mechanisms
Do Kind Terms Denote Kinds
Cats are not necessarily animals
Structure, essence and existence in chemistry
Open texture and the reconsideration of the structure of concepts
Swampman, teleosemantics and kind essences
Complexity begets crosscutting, dooms hierarchy (another paper on natural kinds)
The content program through an instrumentalist lens
Kinds behaving badly
An epistemic distinction among essences, its metaphysical ground, and the role of philosophy
Doing without Concepts
Beyond Rigidity
Reasoning in Biological Discoveries
Explaining the Brain
What Emotions Really Are
Nature's Metaphysics
Mechanisms and the nature of causation
What Realism Implies and What it Does Not
Mechanisms and natural kinds
Naming and Necessity
The meaning of ‘meaning’
Two Ways of Thinking About Fitness and Natural Selection
Realism, anti-foundationalism and the enthusiasm for natural kinds
Sets, Species, and Evolution
Explanation
Natural Selection and Distributive Explanation
The chemistry of substances and the philosophy of mass terms
The Trials of Life
The Naturalist Conception of Methodological Standards in Science
Resurrecting Biological Essentialism
Elements, Compounds, and Other Chemical Kinds
Thinking about Mechanisms
Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation
Pruning the Tree of Life
Natural Kindness
Transitional Gradation in the Mind
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |