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Single Idea 10351

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 7. Critique of Kinds ]

Full Idea

Natural kinds are social institutions.

Gist of Idea

Natural kinds are social institutions

Source

Martin Kusch (Knowledge by Agreement [2002], Ch.11)

Book Ref

Kusch,Martin: 'Knowledge by Agreement' [OUP 2004], p.163

A Reaction

I can see what he means, but I take this to be deeply wrong. A clarification of what exactly is meant by a 'natural kind' is needed before we can make any progress with this one. Is a village a natural kind? Or a poodle? Or a shoal?

The 28 ideas from 'Knowledge by Agreement'

10325 Vindicating testimony is an expression of individualism [Kusch]
10324 Testimony does not just transmit knowledge between individuals - it actually generates knowledge [Kusch]
10323 Communitarian Epistemology says 'knowledge' is a social status granted to groups of people [Kusch]
10327 Some want to reduce testimony to foundations of perceptions, memories and inferences [Kusch]
10329 Testimony won't reduce to perception, if perception depends on social concepts and categories [Kusch]
10332 Omniscience is incoherent, since knowledge is a social concept [Kusch]
10331 Testimony is reliable if it coheres with evidence for a belief, and with other beliefs [Kusch]
10330 A foundation is what is intelligible, hence from a rational source, and tending towards truth [Kusch]
10333 Communitarianism in epistemology sees the community as the primary knower [Kusch]
10334 Testimony is an area in which epistemology meets ethics [Kusch]
10336 Powerless people are assumed to be unreliable, even about their own lives [Kusch]
10335 Myths about lonely genius are based on epistemological individualism [Kusch]
10337 We can have knowledge without belief, if others credit us with knowledge [Kusch]
10339 Foundations seem utterly private, even from oneself at a later time [Kusch]
10341 Justification depends on the audience and one's social role [Kusch]
10338 The coherentist restricts the space of reasons to the realm of beliefs [Kusch]
10340 Individualistic coherentism lacks access to all of my beliefs, or critical judgement of my assessment [Kusch]
10343 Process reliabilism has been called 'virtue epistemology', resting on perception, memory, reason [Kusch]
10344 Our experience may be conceptual, but surely not the world itself? [Kusch]
10345 Individual coherentism cannot generate the necessary normativity [Kusch]
10350 Cultures decide causal routes, and they can be critically assessed [Kusch]
10351 Natural kinds are social institutions [Kusch]
10348 Private justification is justification to imagined other people [Kusch]
10349 To be considered 'an individual' is performed by a society [Kusch]
10353 Tarskians distinguish truth from falsehood by relations between members of sets [Kusch]
10354 Correspondence could be with other beliefs, rather than external facts [Kusch]
10358 Often socialising people is the only way to persuade them [Kusch]
10357 Methodological Solipsism assumes all ideas could be derived from one mind [Kusch]