Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Natural Kinds, philosophy: deviating from the biological definition, substances such as gold, water, etc. are referred to as natural kinds in the recent philosophical discussion. This goes back to the way in which these terms were introduced. (See H. Putnam, “The Meaning of 'Meaning”'. In Philosophical Papers, Vol. 2. Mind, Language and Reality, Cambridge.) Starting from a primary showing, the natural kind is defined as "something like this". The decisive point here is that there is no limit to future research. Virtually, any property that is initially attributed can prove to be a false assumption. See also introduction, definitions, terms._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Robert Stalnaker on Natural Kinds - Dictionary of Arguments
I 80 Natural Kind/necessary properties/Stalnaker: the characteristics of kangaroos are empirical, not linguistic, i.e. actual kangaroos play a necessary role. >Language dependence, >Empricism. N.B.: but that is not sufficient for the fact that kangaroos are necessarily kangaroos. >Necessary identity. E.g. standard meter/Kripke: the object itself could be longer or shorter - so actual kangaroos can specify the reference of "kangaroo", without themselves being genuine elements of the natural kind. >Standard meter. I 208 Natural kind/rigidity/rigid/Stalnaker: names and natural kind terms are rigid. >Rigidity._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Stalnaker I R. Stalnaker Ways a World may be Oxford New York 2003 |
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> Counter arguments against Stalnaker
> Counter arguments in relation to Natural Kinds
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28