Muhammad Ali Khalidi proposes a new approach to classifications in the natural and social sciences, avoiding essentialism and social constructionism.

The notion of 'natural kinds' has been central to contemporary discussions of metaphysics and philosophy of science. Although explicitly articulated by nineteenth-century philosophers like Mill, Whewell and Venn, it has a much older history dating back to Plato and Aristotle. In recent years, essentialism has been the dominant account of natural kinds among philosophers, but the essentialist view has encountered resistance, especially among naturalist metaphysicians and philosophers of science. Informed by detailed examination of classification in the natural and social sciences, this book argues against essentialism and for a naturalist account of natural kinds. By looking at case studies drawn from diverse scientific disciplines, from fluid mechanics to virology and polymer science to psychiatry, the author argues that natural kinds are nodes in causal networks. On the basis of this account, he maintains that there can be natural kinds in the social sciences as well as the natural sciences.

Muhammad Ali Khalidi proposes a new approach to classifications in the natural and social sciences, avoiding essentialism and social constructionism.

This thesis is about natural kinds, conceived as the basic subject matter of inductive generalizations. An account of natural kinds is developed that pays particular attention to the empirical possibility and reality of kinds in the life and human sciences. It is argued that natural kinds should be understood as groups of individuals/instances that support multiple generalisations and that they do so by no accident because the members of these groups share a basic commonality. This commonality represents the kind's non-accidental grounding. As opposed to the prevailing attitude, it is argued that this understanding of natural kinds does allow for the inclusion of human and social kinds in the same framework as "other" natural kinds. Nor is the account overly permissive since it also rules out definitional, conventional, and functional categories. -- The main part of the thesis is devoted to showing how science itself can -- and often does -- discover why it is no accident that a given natural kind supports a variety of generalizations by determining the kind's grounding. Two general and exhaustive models of grounding are proposed: first, an intrinsic or non-relational account, and second, a historical account. The basic model is inspired by Ruth Millikan's work on the historical sciences (1999), but, in contrast to her, it is contended that the two models of grounding are both applicable in the life and human sciences. -- It is argued against Michael Devitt's biological intrinsic essentialism (2008) that biological species, such as tigers and humans, are natural kinds that have historical grounds. Moreover the possibility of historically grounded kinds can also explain why we expect to find cases of variably realization in these sciences. Finally, a case of a putative natural kind in child psychiatry is discussed in some detail.

Natural kinds is a widely used and pivotal concept in philosophy – the idea being that the classifications and taxonomies employed by science correspond to the real kinds in nature. Natural kinds are often opposed to the idea of kinds in the human and social sciences, which are typically seen as social constructions, characterised by changing norms and resisting scientific reduction. Yet human beings are also a subject of scientific study.Does this mean humans fall into corresponding kinds of their own? In The Epistemology and Morality of Human Kinds Marion Godman defends the idea of human kinds. She first examines the scientific use and nature of human kinds, considering the arguments of key philosophers whose work bears upon human kinds, such as Ian Hacking, John Searle, Richard Boyd and Ruth Millikan. Using the examples of gender, ethnic minorities and Buddhism she then argues that human kinds are a result of ongoing historical reproduction, chiefly due to pre-existing cultural models and social learning. Her novel argument shifts the focus away from the reductionism characteristic of research about human kinds. Instead, sheargues that they are “multiply projectable” and deserving of scientific study not in spite of, but because of their role in explaining our identity, injusticeand the emergence of group rights.

The goal of scientific taxonomy is to come up with classification schemes that conform to nature's own. This Element surveys existing philosophical accounts of natural kinds, defends a naturalist alternative, and applies it to case studies in a diverse set of sciences. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

The importance of language is increasingly acknowledged within social psychology. In this seminal book, a group of distinguished authors goes beyond general theory to address, from a research base, key issues in the interrelationship between language, interaction and social cognition. Their starting point is that the ways in which we perceive and, therefore, interact with others are structured by the language available to us, as a socially constructed system above and beyond individual minds. The relationship between language and social cognition is not, however, a fixed or unicausal one: linguistic terms are also generated in response to social and cultural development. The interplay is dialectical - a dialectic of the social. The authors explore this dialectic through such themes as: the use and power of category labels; trait-behaviour relations in social information processing; and interpersonal verbs and attribution. They examine the significance of language use in the persistence of stereotypes, and the links between syntactical reasoning processes and social cognition, as well as the impact of perspectivity. They consider the ways in which communication roles and context shape, and are shaped by, language. Language, Interaction and Social Cognition will be essential reading for all those in social psychology, psycholinguistics, linguistics and communication studies concerned with the role of language in interaction and social cognition.