Natural Categories and Human Kinds - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Natural Categories and Human Kinds write by Muhammad Ali Khalidi. This book was released on 2013-05-16. Natural Categories and Human Kinds available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.
Human Kinds and Other Natural Kinds
Human Kinds and Other Natural Kinds - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Human Kinds and Other Natural Kinds write by Marion Godman. This book was released on 2011. Human Kinds and Other Natural Kinds available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This thesis is about natural kinds, conceived as the basic subject matter of inductive generalizations. An account of natural kinds is developed that pays particular attention to the empirical possibility and reality of kinds in the life and human sciences. It is argued that natural kinds should be understood as groups of individuals/instances that support multiple generalisations and that they do so by no accident because the members of these groups share a basic commonality. This commonality represents the kind's non-accidental grounding. As opposed to the prevailing attitude, it is argued that this understanding of natural kinds does allow for the inclusion of human and social kinds in the same framework as "other" natural kinds. Nor is the account overly permissive since it also rules out definitional, conventional, and functional categories. -- The main part of the thesis is devoted to showing how science itself can -- and often does -- discover why it is no accident that a given natural kind supports a variety of generalizations by determining the kind's grounding. Two general and exhaustive models of grounding are proposed: first, an intrinsic or non-relational account, and second, a historical account. The basic model is inspired by Ruth Millikan's work on the historical sciences (1999), but, in contrast to her, it is contended that the two models of grounding are both applicable in the life and human sciences. -- It is argued against Michael Devitt's biological intrinsic essentialism (2008) that biological species, such as tigers and humans, are natural kinds that have historical grounds. Moreover the possibility of historically grounded kinds can also explain why we expect to find cases of variably realization in these sciences. Finally, a case of a putative natural kind in child psychiatry is discussed in some detail.
The Epistemology and Morality of Human Kinds
The Epistemology and Morality of Human Kinds - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Epistemology and Morality of Human Kinds write by Marion Godman. This book was released on 2020-11-25. The Epistemology and Morality of Human Kinds available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Natural kinds is a widely used and pivotal concept in philosophy – the idea being that the classifications and taxonomies employed by science correspond to the real kinds in nature. Natural kinds are often opposed to the idea of kinds in the human and social sciences, which are typically seen as social constructions, characterised by changing norms and resisting scientific reduction. Yet human beings are also a subject of scientific study.Does this mean humans fall into corresponding kinds of their own? In The Epistemology and Morality of Human Kinds Marion Godman defends the idea of human kinds. She first examines the scientific use and nature of human kinds, considering the arguments of key philosophers whose work bears upon human kinds, such as Ian Hacking, John Searle, Richard Boyd and Ruth Millikan. Using the examples of gender, ethnic minorities and Buddhism she then argues that human kinds are a result of ongoing historical reproduction, chiefly due to pre-existing cultural models and social learning. Her novel argument shifts the focus away from the reductionism characteristic of research about human kinds. Instead, sheargues that they are “multiply projectable” and deserving of scientific study not in spite of, but because of their role in explaining our identity, injusticeand the emergence of group rights.
Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference
Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference write by Justin E. H. Smith. This book was released on 2017-03-14. Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role. Smith demonstrates how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, Smith delves into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism. With a broad narrative stretching over two centuries, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference takes a critical historical look at how the racial categories that we divide ourselves into came into being.
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology
Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology write by Thomas Teo. This book was released on 2014-01-31. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology is a comprehensive reference work and is the first reference work in English that comprehensively looks at psychological topics from critical as well as international points of view. Thus, it will appeal to all committed to a critical approach across the Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, for alternative analyses of psychological events, processes, and practices. The Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology provides commentary from expert critical psychologists from around the globe who will compose the entries. The Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology will feature approximately 1,000 invited entries, organized in an easy to use A-Z format. The encyclopedia will be compiled under the direction of the editor who has published widely in the field of critical psychology and due to his international involvements is knowledgeable about the status of critical psychology around the world. The expert contributors will summarize current critical-psychological knowledge and discuss significant topics from a global perspective.
