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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...
| 17371 | Some kinds are very explanatory, but others less so, and some not at all [Devitt] |
| 17372 | The higher categories are not natural kinds, so the Linnaean hierarchy should be given up [Devitt] |
| 17373 | Species pluralism says there are several good accounts of what a species is [Devitt] |