Combining Philosophers

Ideas for H.Putnam/P.Oppenheim, Karl Weierstrass and Plato

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1 idea

27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species
The natural offspring of a lion is called a 'lion' (but what about the offspring of a king?) [Plato]
     Full Idea: It seems to me that it is right to call a lion's offspring a 'lion' and a horse's offspring a 'horse' (I'm talking about natural offspring, not some monster). ...but by the same argument any offspring of a king should be called a 'king'.
     From: Plato (Cratylus [c.377 BCE], 393b)
     A reaction: The standard modern difficulty is whether all descendants of dinosaurs are still called 'dinosaur', which they are not.