On the logic of natural kinds

Philosophy of Science 43 (2):202-222 (1976)
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Abstract

A minimal second order modal logic of natural kinds is formulated. Concepts are distinguished from properties and relations in the conceptual-logistic background of the logic through a distinction between free and bound predicate variables. Not all concepts (as indicated by free predicate variables) need have a property or relation corresponding to them (as values of bound predicate variables). Issues pertaining to identity and existence as impredicative concepts are examined and an analysis of mass terms as nominalized predicates for kinds of stuff is proposed. The minimal logic is extendible through a summum genus, an infima species or a partition principle for natural kinds

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10.1086/288677

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Nino Cocchiarella
Indiana University, Bloomington

Citations of this work

Generic terms and generic sentences.Greg N. Carlson - 1982 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 11 (2):145 - 181.
Essential membership.Joseph LaPorte - 1997 - Philosophy of Science 64 (1):96-112.
Kitts and Kitts and Caplan on species.David L. Hull - 1981 - Philosophy of Science 48 (1):141-152.

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References found in this work

Three Grades of Modal Involvement.W. V. Quine - 1953 - Proceedings of the XIth International Congress of Philosophy 14:65-81.
Abstract Entities.Wilfrid Sellars - 1963 - Review of Metaphysics 16 (4):627 - 671.
Essentialism and quantified modal logic.Terence Parsons - 1969 - Philosophical Review 78 (1):35-52.
On the Use of Hilbert's ε-Operator in Scientific Theories.Rudolf Carnap - 1961 - In Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua & [From Old Catalog], Essays on the Foundations of Mathematics. Jerusalem,: Magnes Press. pp. 156--164.

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