Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice

About this book

Natural kinds are an important topic in current philosophical debate. Previous work on kinds has looked at the relationship between concepts of kinds and the contents of the world. This edited collection examines kinds from a new focal point, that of the empirical activities and categorizations used by scientists to define them. An esteemed group of contributors explore the nature of kinds and kinding across chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, linguistics, and race and gender studies.

Contents

1 'Kinding' Practices: Kinds of Practices and Practices of Kinds: The Making of Quantitative Kinds – Jordi Cat
2 The Rising of Natural Kinds through Epistemic Iteration – Hasok Chang
3 Theorizing with a Purpose: What makes a Concept Apt? – Sally Haslanger
4 The Classification of Proteins: Attending to Practice – Joyce Havstad
5 Kinding and Homologizing – Catherine Kendig
6 Artefacts as Domesticated Kinds of Practices – Sergio Fernando Martinez Muñoz
7 Kinds and Beyond in Linguistic Practice – Bernhard Nickel
8 Symbolical Algebraic Numbers and the Finitist Critique: A Nineteenth-Century Case Study Analyzing Natural Kinds in Mathematics – Josipa Petrunic
9 Memory as a Cognitive Kind: Brains, Remembering Dyads and Exograms – Samuli Pöyhönen
10 Practices Aren’t Static: Toward a Dynamic Account of Classification and Kinds – Thomas Reydon
11 Genuine Kinds and Scientific Reality – Quayshawn Spencer
12 Neuroscientific Kinds through the Lens of Scientific Practice – Jacqueline Sullivan
13 A Tale of Two Dilemmas: Cognitive Kinds and the Extended Mind – Michael Wheeler
14 Mapping Kinds in GIS and Cartography – Rasmus Winther

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