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Full Idea
If there is a hidden structure, then generally it determines what it is to be a member of the natural kind, ...in all possible worlds. Put another way, it determines what we can and cannot counterfactually suppose about the natural kind.
Gist of Idea
The hidden structure of a natural kind determines membership in all possible worlds
Source
Hilary Putnam (The Meaning of 'Meaning' [1975], p.241)
Book Ref
Putnam,Hilary: 'Mind Language and Reality: Papers vol 2' [CUP 1975], p.241
A Reaction
This is the arrival of the bold new view of natural kinds (which is actually the original view - see Idea 8153). One must be careful of the necessity here. There is causal context, vagueness etc.
Related Idea
Idea 8153 By knowing one piece of clay or gold, you know all of clay or gold [Anon (Upan)]
15660 | Logos is the source of everything, and my theories separate and explain each nature [Heraclitus] |
15993 | If we observe total regularity, there must be some unknown law and relationships controlling it [Locke] |
11191 | The hidden structure of a natural kind determines membership in all possible worlds [Putnam] |
12680 | Natural kind structures go right down to the bottom level [Ellis] |
5471 | Essentialism says natural kinds are fundamental to nature, and determine the laws [Ellis] |
13574 | Natural kinds are distinguished by resting on essences [Ellis] |
15150 | The properties of an electron can't be explained just as 'clustering' [Chakravartty on Boyd] |
15149 | Properties cluster together, either because of intrinsic relations, or because of an underlying process [Boyd, by Chakravartty] |
14344 | Natural kinds, such as electrons, all behave the same way because we divide them by dispositions [Mumford] |
14957 | There is nothing more to a natural kind than a real pattern in nature [Ladyman/Ross] |
15146 | Some kinds, such as electrons, have essences, but 'cluster kinds' do not [Chakravartty] |
13287 | Concepts for species are either intrinsic structure, or relations like breeding or ancestry [Koslicki] |
15641 | Kinds are fixed by the essential properties of things - the properties that make it that kind of thing [Eagle] |