Journal of the American Philosophical Association (3):1-19 (2020)
Authors |
|
Abstract |
This paper aims to build a bridge between two areas of philosophical research, the structure of kinds and metaphysical modality. Our central thesis is that kinds typically involve super-explanatory properties, and that these properties are therefore metaphysically essential to natural kinds. Philosophers of science who work on kinds tend to emphasize their complexity, and are generally resistant to any suggestion that they have “essences”. The complexities are real enough, but they should not be allowed to obscure the way that kinds are typically unified by certain core properties. We shall show how this unifying role offers a natural account of why certain properties are metaphysically essential to kinds.
|
Keywords | Kinds Essence Metaphysical modality Species |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Reprint years | 2020 |
DOI | 10.1017/apa.2019.48 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Grounding, Essence, And Identity.Fabrice Correia & Alexander Skiles - 2019 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 98 (3):642-670.
Realism, Anti-Foundationalism and the Enthusiasm for Natural Kinds.Richard Boyd - 1991 - Philosophical Studies 61 (1):127-148.
View all 30 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Superexplanations for Counterfactual Knowledge.Antonella Mallozzi - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 178 (4):1315-1337.
“Philosophers Care About the Truth”: Descriptive/Normative Generics.Olivier Lemeire - forthcoming - Mind and Language.
Natural Kinds, Mind-Independence, and Unification Principles.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2022 - Synthese 200 (2):1-23.
The Epistemology of Modality.Antonella Mallozzi, Michael Wallner & Anand Vaidya - 2021 - The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
View all 9 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Essences and Natural Kinds.Alexander Bird - 2009 - In Robin Le Poidevin (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics. Routledge. pp. 497--506.
Modality is Not Explainable by Essence.Carlos Romero - 2019 - Philosophical Quarterly 69 (274):121-141.
Knowledge of Objective Modality.Margot Strohminger & Juhani Yli-Vakkuri - 2019 - Philosophical Studies 176 (5):1155-1175.
Scientific Realism with Historical Essences: The Case of Species.Marion Godman - 2018 - Synthese 198 (Suppl 12):3041-3057.
Empirically-Informed Modal Rationalism.Tuomas Tahko - 2017 - In Robert William Fischer & Felipe Leon (eds.), Modal Epistemology After Rationalism. Synthese Library. pp. 29-45.
Natural Necessity as Grounded in Natural Essence: Towards a Homogeneous Essentialist Account of Modality.Hireche Salim - 2016 - Dissertation, University of Geneva
Are Natural Kinds and Natural Properties Distinct?Emma Tobin - 2013 - In Stephen Mumford & Matthew Tugby (eds.), Metaphysics and Science. Oxford University Press. pp. 164-182.
An Essentialist Theory of Modality.Randall L. Ridenour - 2000 - Dissertation, The University of Oklahoma
Dispositional Essentialism and the Grounding of Natural Modality.Siegfried Jaag - 2014 - Philosophers' Imprint 14.
3 It Takes More Than All Kinds to Make a World.Marc Lange - 2011 - In Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke & Matthew H. Slater (eds.), Carving Nature at its Joints: Natural Kinds in Metaphysics and Science. MIT Press. pp. 53.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2019-11-14
Total views
640 ( #12,420 of 2,504,848 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
176 ( #3,342 of 2,504,848 )
2019-11-14
Total views
640 ( #12,420 of 2,504,848 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
176 ( #3,342 of 2,504,848 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads