Taxons are not Homeostatic Property Clusters Either

  • Gustavo Caponi Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil
Keywords: Boyd, Richard, Individuals, Natural Kinds, Taxonomy, Types

Abstract

The notion of homeostatic property cluster is adequate to characterize types and the natural kinds that these types delimit; but assuming that way of considering natural types and classes does not lead to challenging taxonomic individualism: the thesis according to which taxa are individual entities and not natural kinds. The arguments that serve to show that the taxa are not natural kinds, in a more rigid or more classic sense of the term, are also valid, mutatis mutandis, when the idea of ​​types as homeostatic property clusters is accepted. In this regard, Boyd’s proposal does not bring major newness for Philosophy of Biology. Besides that, this proposal can involve a confusion between essence and idiosyncrasy that would be better to preserve.

Author Biography

Gustavo Caponi, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil

GUSTAVO CAPONI, is PhD in Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Unicamp, Profesor Titular at the Department of Philosophy of the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, and fellow of the CNPq. He works in Philosophy and History of Biology. His main publication are: Georges Cuvier (México, 2008); Buffon (México, 2010); La segunda agenda darwiniana (México, 2011); Réquiem por el centauro: aproximación epistemológica a la Biología Evolucionaria del Desarrollo (México, 2012); Função e desenho na biologia contemporânea (São Paulo, 2012); and Leyes sin causa y causas sin ley en la explicación biológica (Bogotá, 2014).

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Published
2017-12-22
How to Cite
[1]
Caponi, G. 2017. Taxons are not Homeostatic Property Clusters Either. Disputatio. 6, 7 (Dec. 2017), 323-356. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1412733.
Section
Articles and Essays