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Single Idea 7375

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

Full Idea

The concept of natural kinds was reintroduced by Quine, who may now regret the way it has become a stand-in for the dubious but covertly popular concept of essences.

Gist of Idea

Quine probably regrets natural kinds now being treated as essences

Source

report of Willard Quine (Natural Kinds [1969]) by Daniel C. Dennett - Consciousness Explained 12.2 n2

Book Ref

Dennett,Daniel C.: 'Consciousness Explained' [Penguin 1993], p.381

A Reaction

He is right that Quine would regret it, and he is right that we can't assume that there are necessary essences just because there seem to be stable natural kinds, but personally I am an essentialist, so I'm not that bothered.

The 19 ideas from 'Natural Kinds'

7375 Quine probably regrets natural kinds now being treated as essences [Quine, by Dennett]
16932 Projectible predicates can be universalised about the kind to which they refer [Quine]
16933 Grue is a puzzle because the notions of similarity and kind are dubious in science [Quine]
16934 General terms depend on similarities among things [Quine]
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]
16937 You can't base kinds just on resemblance, because chains of resemblance are a muddle [Quine]
16938 To learn yellow by observation, must we be told to look at the colour? [Quine]
8486 Standards of similarity are innate, and the spacing of qualities such as colours can be mapped [Quine]
16939 Mass terms just concern spread, but other terms involve both spread and individuation [Quine]
16941 Induction relies on similar effects following from each cause [Quine]
16940 Induction is just more of the same: animal expectations [Quine]
16943 Philosophy is continuous with science, and has no external vantage point [Quine]
16942 It is hard to see how regularities could be explained [Quine]
16944 Science is common sense, with a sophisticated method [Quine]
16945 We judge things to be soluble if they are the same kind as, or similar to, things that do dissolve [Quine]
16947 Similarity is just interchangeability in the cosmic machine [Quine]
16948 Once we know the mechanism of a disposition, we can eliminate 'similarity' [Quine]
16949 Klein summarised geometry as grouped together by transformations [Quine]