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26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds

[general ideas about natural kinds]

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