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Letting Go of “Natural Kind”: Toward a Multidimensional Framework of Nonarbitrary Classification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

David Ludwig
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Abstract

This article uses the case study of ethnobiological classification to develop a positive and a negative thesis about the state of natural kind debates. On the one hand, I argue that current accounts of natural kinds can be integrated in a multidimensional framework that advances understanding of classificatory practices in ethnobiology. On the other hand, I argue that such a multidimensional framework does not leave any substantial work for the notion “natural kind” and that attempts to formulate a general account of naturalness have become an obstacle to understanding classificatory practices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 85 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 31 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†.

Previous versions of this article were presented at PSA 2016, the Filosofie van Wetenschap en Technologie Reading Group, and the workshop “Classification in Biological Practice” at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I would like to thank all participants and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Laura Franklin-Hall, Muhammad Ali Khalidi, P. D. Magnus, and Matthew Slater all answered questions about their accounts of natural kinds and prevented at least some misrepresentations of their views. Marc Ereshefsky read an earlier draft, and his comments greatly improved the manuscript.

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