Laimann, Jessica (2017) Capricious kinds. [Preprint]

Preview

Text Laimann_capricious kinds Final.pdf Download (251kB) | Preview

Abstract

According to Ian Hacking, some human kinds are subject to a peculiar type of classificatory instability: individuals change in reaction to being classified, which in turn leads to a revision of our understanding of the kind. Hacking’s claim that these ‘human interactive kinds’ cannot be natural kinds has been vehemently criticised on the grounds that similar patterns of instability occur in paradigmatic examples of natural kinds. I argue that the dialectic of the extant debate misses the core conceptual problem of human interactive kinds. The problem is not that these kinds are particularly unstable but ‘capricious’—their members behave in wayward, unexpected manners which defeats existing theoretical understanding. The reason for that, I argue, is that human interactive kinds are often ‘hybrid kinds’ consisting of a base kind and an associated status, which makes mechanisms that support patterns of change and stability systematically difficult to understand and predict.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Laimann, Jessica jessica.laimann@bristol.ac.uk
Additional Information:	Accepted for publication in The British Journal for Philosophy of Science
Keywords:	interactive kinds, human kinds, looping effects, natural kinds, social kinds
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Psychology Specific Sciences > Sociology
Depositing User:	Jessica Laimann
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2017 16:12
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2017 16:12
Item ID:	14129
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology Specific Sciences > Psychology Specific Sciences > Sociology
Date:	18 November 2017
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/14129

Available Versions of this Item

• Capricious kinds. (deposited 20 Nov 2017 16:12) [Currently Displayed]
  • Capricious kinds. (deposited 21 Nov 2017 21:50)

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item