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Single Idea 17371
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds
]
Full Idea
Explanatory significance, hence naturalness, comes in degrees: positing some kinds may be very explanatory, positing others, only a little bit explanatory, positing others still, not explanatory at all.
Gist of Idea
Some kinds are very explanatory, but others less so, and some not at all
Source
Michael Devitt (Natural Kinds and Biological Realism [2009], 4)
Book Ref
Devitt,Michael: 'Putting Metaphysics First' [OUP 2010], p.202
A Reaction
He mentions 'cousin' as a natural kind that is not very explanatory of anything. It interests us as humans, but not at all in other animals, it seems. ...Nice thought, though, that two squirrels might be cousins...
The
20 ideas
with the same theme
[general ideas about natural kinds]:
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10952
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Unusual kinds like mule are just a combination of two kinds
[Aristotle]
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19244
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Chemists rely on a single experiment to establish a fact; repetition is pointless
[Peirce]
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7375
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Quine probably regrets natural kinds now being treated as essences
[Quine, by Dennett]
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16935
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If similarity has no degrees, kinds cannot be contained within one another
[Quine]
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16936
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Comparative similarity allows the kind 'colored' to contain the kind 'red'
[Quine]
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6613
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The natural kinds are objects, processes and properties/relations
[Ellis]
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5472
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Natural kinds are of objects/substances, or events/processes, or intrinsic natures
[Ellis]
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15886
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Science rests on the principle that nature is a hierarchy of natural kinds
[Harré]
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17371
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Some kinds are very explanatory, but others less so, and some not at all
[Devitt]
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17381
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Phylogenetics involves history, and cladism rests species on splits in lineage
[Dupré]
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17385
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Kinds don't do anything (including evolve) because they are abstract
[Dupré]
|
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6776
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Natural kinds are those that we use in induction
[Bird]
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6767
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Rubies and sapphires are both corundum, with traces of metals varying their colours
[Bird]
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6768
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Tin is not one natural kind, but appears to be 21, depending on isotope
[Bird]
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6770
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Membership of a purely random collection cannot be used as an explanation
[Bird]
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6771
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Natural kinds may overlap, or be sub-kinds of one another
[Bird]
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17394
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Natural kinds are what are differentiated by nature, and not just by us
[Scerri]
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17421
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If elements are natural kinds, might the groups of the periodic table also be natural kinds?
[Scerri]
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14504
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The Kripke/Putnam approach to natural kind terms seems to give them excessive stability
[Koslicki]
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18613
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Artifacts can be natural kinds, when they are the object of historical enquiry
[Machery]
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