Magnus, P.D. (2014) What the 19th century knew about taxonomy and the 20th forgot. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The accepted narrative treats John Stuart Mill's Kinds as the historical prototype for our natural kinds, but Mill actually employs two separate notions: Kinds and natural groups. Considering these, along with the accounts of Mill's 19th-century interlocutors, forces us to recognize two distinct questions. First, what marks a natural kind as worthy of inclusion in taxonomy? Second, what exists in the world that makes a category meet that criterion? Mill's two notions offer separate answers to the two questions: natural groups for taxonomy, and Kinds for ontology. This distinction is ignored in many contemporary debates about natural kinds and is obscured by the standard narrative which treats our natural kinds just as a development of Mill's Kinds.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Magnus, P.D. pmagnus@fecundity.com
Keywords:	John Stuart Mill, natural kinds, Ian Hacking, William Whewell, Kinds, taxonomy, ontology
Subjects:	General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science
Depositing User:	P.D. Magnus
Date Deposited:	07 Jul 2014 13:19
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2014 13:19
Item ID:	10821
Subjects:	General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science
Date:	2014
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10821

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