Natural Categories and Human Kinds
Classification in the Natural and Social Sciences

Muhammad Ali Khalidi proposes a new approach to classifications in the natural and social sciences, avoiding essentialism and social constructionism.

Muhammad Ali Khalidi (Author)

9781107012745, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 May 2013

264 pages, 5 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.53 kg

'Philosophers and scientists on either side of the fence, whether of naturalist or social constructionist persuasion, will find plenty of material to sink their teeth into in Khalidi's delightfully argued and wide-ranging treatment of natural kinds … We can … only commend Khalidi for his valiant attempt at restoring the notion of natural kinds to the central place within philosophy where it belongs.' Georg Theiner, Journal for General Philosophy of Science

The notion of 'natural kinds' has been central to contemporary discussions of metaphysics and philosophy of science. Although explicitly articulated by nineteenth-century philosophers like Mill, Whewell and Venn, it has a much older history dating back to Plato and Aristotle. In recent years, essentialism has been the dominant account of natural kinds among philosophers, but the essentialist view has encountered resistance, especially among naturalist metaphysicians and philosophers of science. Informed by detailed examination of classification in the natural and social sciences, this book argues against essentialism and for a naturalist account of natural kinds. By looking at case studies drawn from diverse scientific disciplines, from fluid mechanics to virology and polymer science to psychiatry, the author argues that natural kinds are nodes in causal networks. On the basis of this account, he maintains that there can be natural kinds in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences.

Preface
1. Realism and essentialism about kinds
2. The naturalness of kinds
3. Kinds in the special sciences
4. Kinds in the biological and social sciences
5. Kinds of natural kinds
6. Naturalising kinds.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH]