How special are the life sciences?

a view from the natural kinds debate

Thomas Reydon

pp. 173-188

in: Friedrich Stadler (ed), The present situation in the philosophy of science, Berlin, Springer, 2010

Abstract

Philosophers of the special sciences seem to find it important to ask whether or not particular groupings of things that feature in particular special sciences can be conceived of as natural kinds.¹ For example, a quick search of the philosophical literature of the past decades comes up with several dozens of papers targeting the question "Is … a natural kind?", many of these concerning kinds of emotions and the emotion category in psychology² and the category of concepts in psychology / cognitive science.³