The Causal Homogeneity of Biological Kinds

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 27 (3/4):421 - 433 (2005)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show that biological kinds can be causally homogeneous, although all biological causes are identical with configurations of physical causes. The paper considers two different strategies to establish that result: the first one relies on two different manners of classification (according to function and according to composition); the other one exploits the idea of biological classifications being rather coarse-grained, whereas physical classifications are fine-grained

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,628

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Natural kinds and natural kind terms.Kathrin Koslicki - 2008 - Philosophy Compass 3 (4):789-802.
On the functional origins of essentialism.H. Clark Barrett - 2001 - [Journal (Paginated)] (in Press) 2 (1):1-30.
Millikan's Historical Kinds.Mohan Matthen - 2013 - In Dan Ryder, Justine Kingsbury & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Millikan and her critics. Malden, MA: Wiley. pp. 135-154.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
84 (#199,701)

6 months
6 (#507,808)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Michael Esfeld
University of Lausanne

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations