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Single Idea 6613

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds ]

Full Idea

There are three hierarchies of natural kinds: objects or substances (substantive universals), events or processes (dynamic universals), and properties or relations (tropic universals).

Clarification

For tropes, see Idea 4444

Gist of Idea

The natural kinds are objects, processes and properties/relations

Source

Brian Ellis (Katzav on limitations of dispositions [2005], 91)

Book Ref

-: 'Analysis 65.1 Jan 2005' [- 2005], p.90

A Reaction

Most interesting here is the identifying of natural kinds with universals, making universals into the families of nature. Universals are high-level sets of natural kinds. To grasp universals you must see patterns, and infer the underlying order.

The 20 ideas with the same theme [general ideas about natural kinds]:

10952 Unusual kinds like mule are just a combination of two kinds [Aristotle]
19244 Chemists rely on a single experiment to establish a fact; repetition is pointless [Peirce]
7375 Quine probably regrets natural kinds now being treated as essences [Quine, by Dennett]
16935 If similarity has no degrees, kinds cannot be contained within one another [Quine]
16936 Comparative similarity allows the kind 'colored' to contain the kind 'red' [Quine]
6613 The natural kinds are objects, processes and properties/relations [Ellis]
5472 Natural kinds are of objects/substances, or events/processes, or intrinsic natures [Ellis]
15886 Science rests on the principle that nature is a hierarchy of natural kinds [Harré]
17371 Some kinds are very explanatory, but others less so, and some not at all [Devitt]
17381 Phylogenetics involves history, and cladism rests species on splits in lineage [Dupré]
17385 Kinds don't do anything (including evolve) because they are abstract [Dupré]
6776 Natural kinds are those that we use in induction [Bird]
6767 Rubies and sapphires are both corundum, with traces of metals varying their colours [Bird]
6768 Tin is not one natural kind, but appears to be 21, depending on isotope [Bird]
6770 Membership of a purely random collection cannot be used as an explanation [Bird]
6771 Natural kinds may overlap, or be sub-kinds of one another [Bird]
17394 Natural kinds are what are differentiated by nature, and not just by us [Scerri]
17421 If elements are natural kinds, might the groups of the periodic table also be natural kinds? [Scerri]
14504 The Kripke/Putnam approach to natural kind terms seems to give them excessive stability [Koslicki]
18613 Artifacts can be natural kinds, when they are the object of historical enquiry [Machery]