Clustering humans: On biological boundaries

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39 (1):163-170 (2008)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We inquire into the notions of ‘boundary’ and ‘cluster’ in the fields of medical genetics, pharmacogenetics, and population genetics. First we show that the two notions are not well discussed in literature. Then we propose a promising explication of them, in which we argue that clustering is always ‘property laden’, that is, fundamentally dependent on decisions about the properties to be taken into account. In particular we suggest three different kinds of properties that have a role in these decisions. That is, we conclude that boundaries and clusters among humans depend on our way of considering nature. Concepts of ‘race’ and ‘ethnic group’ are discussed too, since they are the most used clusters among humans.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

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

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
51 (#277,647)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

References found in this work

Race: Biological reality or social construct?Robin O. Andreasen - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (3):666.
A new perspective on the race debate.Robin O. Andreasen - 1998 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (2):199-225.
The biological reification of race.Lisa Gannett - 2004 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (2):323-345.

Add more references