What are Natural Kinds? (Philosophical Definition)

A brief introduction to and explanation of Natural Kinds. In the video we look at metaphysical, semantic, and scientific questions about natural kinds as well as positions regarding natural kinds including Natrualism, Conventionalism, Promiscuous Realism, and more.

Sponsors: João Costa Neto, Dakota Jones, Joe Felix, Prince Otchere, Mike Samuel, Daniel Helland, Dennis Sexton, Will Roberts and √2. Thanks for your support!

Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and more!

Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy and more!

[MrFilipFabulous]

Great video, very helpful, is there a follow up? I can't seem to find it on the channel?

[thrldr]

So what is the difference between a natural kind and a universal?

[DManCAWMaster]

Many scientists say philosophy is dead. I'd like to hear your take on that

[munstrumridcully]

As a scientific instrumentalist, and a pragmatic rational empiricist, I think that scientific realism is really unnecessary. We could all be in a delusion caused by some Cartesian demon, or we could be in a matrix, etc, but if a methodology(ie science) can help us predict phenomena and allows for some measure of utility in controlling our surroundings and achieving desirable outcomes, (and does it as well as science demonstrably does) imo it is simply irrelevant if it describes objective reality or not.

[adosar]

is our definitions of words based in properties ? for example we have a banana.We define banana from its image? but if this true if we find something that looks like banana but smells like hot dog then it is a banana? but even if we give banana some properties these properties come arbitrary..so how we define something ?

[KatheeDemontforte]

I've never seen this term "kinds" used except for those that pretend in creationism and the flood myth.

[levicoffman]

I'm arguing with my 6 year old cousin about time travel. My position is that there is no time particle so therefore time doesn't exist. Her position is that time can be measured so it has to be a real thing that exists. So, is a day, a second, a minute a real kind of thing?

[charliemoll]

I don’t know what natural kinds are. They don’t exist

[JungleJargon]

Kind that flies, kind that swims, kind that walks, kind that walks upright, monotreme kind, kidney kind, placenta kind, egg laying kind, dexterous kind, air breathing kind, kind with gills, kind that breathes through the nose, kind that breathes through the skin, kind that chews the cud, carnivorous kind, object credit giving kind, higher IQ kind that recognizes you were programmed to exist by recombination of a preexisting written program that no physical thing can ever significantly sequence.