Historical kinds and the "special sciences"

Philosophical Studies 95 (1-2):45-65 (1999)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

There are no "special sciences" in Fodor's sense. There is a large group of sciences, "historical sciences," that differ fundamentally from the physical sciences because they quantify over a different kind of natural or real kind, nor are the generalizations supported by these kinds exceptionless. Heterogeneity, however, is not characteristic of these kinds. That there could be an univocal empirical science that ranged over multiple realizations of a functional property is quite problematic. If psychological predicates name multiply realized functionalist properties, then there is no single science dealing with these: human psychology, ape psychology, Martian psychology and robot psychology are necessarily different sciences

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

Similar books and articles

Kinds, complexity, and multiple realization.Robert Boyd - 1999 - Philosophical Studies 95 (1-2):67-98.
Millikan's Historical Kinds.Mohan Matthen - 2012 - In Dan Ryder, Justine Kingsbury & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Millikan and Her Critics. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley. pp. 135-154.
An ideal solution to disputes about multiply realized kinds.Colin Klein - 2008 - Philosophical Studies 140 (2):161 - 177.
Why Hacking is wrong about human kinds.Rachel Cooper - 2004 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (1):73-85.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
400 (#45,218)

6 months
26 (#95,928)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Ruth Millikan
University of Connecticut

Citations of this work

Unity of Science.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2021 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Social Structures and the Ontology of Social Groups.Katherine Ritchie - 2018 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 100 (2):402-424.

View all 136 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references