Aristotle’s Pluralistic Realism

The Monist 94 (2):197-220 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper I explore Aristotle’s views on natural kinds and the compatibility of pluralism and realism, a topic that has generated considerable interest among contemporary philosophers. I argue that, when it came to zoology, Aristotle denied that there is only one way of organizing the diversity of the living world into natural kinds that will yield a single, unified system of classification. Instead, living things can be grouped and regrouped into various cross-cutting kinds on the basis of objective similarities and differences in ways that subserve the explanatory context. Since the explanatory aims of zoology are diverse and variegated, the kinds it recognizes must be equally diverse and variegated. At the same time, there are certain constraints on which kinds can be selected. And those constraints derive more from the causal structure of the world than from the proclivities of the classifier (hence the realism). This distinguishes Aristotle’s version of pluralistic realism from those contemporary versions (like Dupré’s “promiscuous realism”) that treat all or most classifications of a given domain as equally legitimate and not just a sub-set of kinds recognized by the science that studies it. By contrast, Aristotle privileges scientifically important kinds on the basis of their role in causal investigations. On this picture natural kinds are those kinds with the sort of causal structure that allows them to enter into scientific explanations. In the final section I argue that Aristotle’s zoology should remain of interest to philosophers and biologists alike insofar as it combines a pluralistic form of realism with a rank-free approach to classification.

Similar books and articles

Aristotle and Moral Realism.Robert Heinaman (ed.) - 1995 - Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.
Natural Kinds and Biological Realisms.Michael Devitt - 2011 - In Michael O'Rourke, Joseph Keim Campbell & Matthew H. Slater (eds.), Carving Nature at its Joints: Natural Kinds in Metaphysics and Science. MIT Press.
Species.Philip Kitcher - 1984 - Philosophy of Science 51 (2):308-333.
Aristotle on Deformed Animal Kinds.Charlotte Witt - 2012 - Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 43:83.
Antirealism and Artefact Kinds.Marzia Soavi - 2009 - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 13 (2):93-107.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-03-16

Downloads
1,646 (#5,568)

6 months
136 (#20,853)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Devin Henry
University of Western Ontario

References found in this work

Fact, Fiction, and Forecast.Nelson Goodman - 1965 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Fact, Fiction, and Forecast.Nelson Goodman - 1955 - Philosophy 31 (118):268-269.
A Radical Solution to the Species Problem.Michael T. Ghiselin - 1974 - Systematic Zoology 23 (4):536–544.

View all 39 references / Add more references