Abstract
AbstractPhilosophical treatments of natural kinds are embedded in two distinct projects. I call these the philosophy of science approach and the philosophy of language approach. Each is characterized by its own set of philosophical questions, concerns, and assumptions. The kinds studied in the philosophy of science approach are projectible categories that can ground inductive inferences and scientific explanation. The kinds studied in the philosophy of language approach are the referential objects of a special linguistic category—natural kind terms—thought to refer directly. Philosophers may hope for a unified account addresses both sets of concerns. This paper argues that this cannot be done successfully. No single account can satisfy both the semantic objectives of the philosophy of language approach and the explanatory projects of the philosophy of science approach. After analyzing where the tensions arise, I make recommendations about assumptions and projects that are best abandoned, those that should be retained, and those that should go their separate ways. I also recommend adopting the disambiguating terminology of “scientific kinds” and “natural kinds” for the different notions of kinds developed in these different approaches.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
General Social Sciences,Philosophy
Reference45 articles.
1. Beebee, H., & Sarbbarton-Leary, N. (2010). On the abuse of the necessary a posteriori. In H. Beebee & N. Sabbarton-Leary (Eds.), The semantics and metaphysics of natural kinds (pp. 159–178). Routledge.
2. Betzler, R. (forthcoming). Two sources of normativity in enthusiastic accounts of kinds. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1086/715149.
3. Boyd, R. H. (1989). What realism implies and what it does not. Dialectica, 43, 5–29.
4. Boyd, R. H. (1990). Realism, conventionality, and ‘realism about.’ In G. Boolos (Ed.), Meaning and method: Essays in honor of Hilary Putnam (pp. 171–195). Cambridge University Press.
5. Boyd, R. H. (1991). Realism, anti-foundationalism, and the enthusiasm for natural kinds. Philosophical Studies, 61, 127–148.
Cited by
3 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献