Scientific realism and Natural Kinds

Fall 2011

Professor: P.D. Magnus

• Course readings at ERes
• 'Natural Kinds' at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• 'Scientific Realism' at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Requirements

Students should come to class prepared to discuss assigned material. Students who miss class are required to write a three page paper on one of the session's assigned readings. Students are required to make a presentation on one of the readings and a final paper presentation. Students will write one short (5ish page) paper and a final (15ish page) paper.

Readings

September 6

• selections from Mill's Logic
• On the Doctrine of Natural Kinds, M. H. Towry
• Mill's Natural Kinds, F. Franklin and C. L. Franklin
• entry on 'Kinds', Charles Sander Peirce
• A tradition of natural kinds, Ian Hacking (optional)

September 13

• Is semantics possible?, Hilary Putnam
• Natural kind terms, Stephen P. Schwartz
• Of Whales and Pendulums, Mark Wilson

September 20

• entry on 'Natural kinds', Bird and Tobin
• Carving up the World, ch 1

September 27

• Natural kinds, John Dupré
• Carving up the World, ch 2

October 4

• Carving up the World, ch 3
• A defense of pluralism..., Mauro Murzi

October 11

• Carving up the World, chs 4-5

October 18

• Carving up the World, ch 6

October 23

• New work for a theory of universals, David Lewis
• Unnatural science, Catherine Elgin

November 1

• Kinds as the "Workmanship of Men", Richard Boyd
• Realism, Natural Kinds, and Philosophical Methods, Richard Boyd

November 8

• What is wrong with the miracle argument?, Martin Carrier
• What is right with the miracle argument, Martin Carrier

November 15

• Classifying artifacts is like classifying people, Thomas Reydon
• Realism and human kinds, Amie Thomasson

November 22

• A Pragmatically Realist Philosophy of Science, John R. Shook
• John Dewey's logic of science, Matthew Brown
• An added note as to the 'practical', John Dewey

November 29

• Theoretical identity statements, their truth, and their discovery, Joseph LaPorte
• Discovering the essences of natural kinds, Alexander Bird
• The elements and conceptual change, Robin Findlay Hendry

December 6

• Conclusion, presentation of papers-in-progress