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Full Idea
The importance of natural kinds for explanation does not depend on a doctrine of essences.
Gist of Idea
Natural kinds don't need essentialism to be explanatory
Source
John Dupré (The Disorder of Things [1993], 3)
Book Ref
Dupré,John: 'The Disorder of Things' [Harvard 1995], p.67
A Reaction
He suggest as the alternative that laws do the explaining, employing natural kinds. He allows that individual essences might be explanatory.