The Nature of Classification

The Nature of Classification PDF

Author: J. Wilkins

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-27

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1137318120

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Discussing the generally ignored issue of the classification of natural objects in the philosophy of science, this book focuses on knowledge and social relations, and offers a way to understand classification as a necessary aspect of doing science.

The Nature of Classification

The Nature of Classification PDF

Author: J. Wilkins

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-27

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1137318120

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Discussing the generally ignored issue of the classification of natural objects in the philosophy of science, this book focuses on knowledge and social relations, and offers a way to understand classification as a necessary aspect of doing science.

Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology

Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology PDF

Author: Alec L. Panchen

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1992-06-26

Total Pages: 420

ISBN-13: 9780521315784

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Historically, naturalists who proposed theories of evolution, including Darwin and Wallace, did so in order to explain the apparent relationship of natural classification. This book begins by exploring the intimate historical relationship between patterns of classification and patterns of phylogeny. However, it is a circular argument to use the data for classification. Alec Panchen presents other evidence for evolution in the form of a historically based but rigorously logical argument. This is followed by a history of methods of classification and phylogeny reconstruction including current mathematical and molecular techniques. The author makes the important claim that if the hierarchical pattern of classification is a real phenomenon, then biology is unique as a science in making taxonomic statements. This conclusion is reached by way of historical reviews of theories of evolutionary mechanism and the philosophy of science as applied to biology. The book is addressed to biologists, particularly taxonomists, concerned with the history and philosophy of their subject, and to philosophers of science concerned with biology. It is also an important source book on methods of classification and the logic of evolutionary theory for students, professional biologists, and paleontologists.

Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice

Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice PDF

Author: Catherine Kendig

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1317215427

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This edited volume of 13 new essays aims to turn past discussions of natural kinds on their head. Instead of presenting a metaphysical view of kinds based largely on an unempirical vantage point, it pursues questions of kindedness which take the use of kinds and activities of kinding in practice as significant in the articulation of them as kinds. The book brings philosophical study of current and historical episodes and case studies from various scientific disciplines to bear on natural kinds as traditionally conceived of within metaphysics. Focusing on these practices reveals the different knowledge-producing activities of kinding and processes involved in natural kind use, generation, and discovery. Specialists in their field, the esteemed group of contributors use diverse empirically responsive approaches to explore the nature of kindhood. This groundbreaking volume presents detailed case studies that exemplify kinding in use. Newly written for this volume, each chapter engages with the activities of kinding across a variety of disciplines. Chapter topics include the nature of kinds, kindhood, kinding, and kind-making in linguistics, chemical classification, neuroscience, gene and protein classification, colour theory in applied mathematics, homology in comparative biology, sex and gender identity theory, memory research, race, extended cognition, symbolic algebra, cartography, and geographic information science. The volume seeks to open up an as-yet unexplored area within the emerging field of philosophy of science in practice, and constitutes a valuable addition to the disciplines of philosophy and history of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Human Geography; an Attempt at a Positive Classification, Principles and Examples

Human Geography; an Attempt at a Positive Classification, Principles and Examples PDF

Author: Jean Brunhes

Publisher: Legare Street Press

Published: 2022-10-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781017699463

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Human Nature as Capacity

Human Nature as Capacity PDF

Author: Nigel Rapport

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2010-03-30

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 184545815X

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What is it to be human? What are our specifically human attributes, our capacities and liabilities? Such questions gave birth to anthropology as an Enlightenment science. This book argues that it is again appropriate to bring "the human" to the fore, to reclaim the singularity of the word as central to the anthropological endeavor, not on the basis of the substance of a human nature – "To be human is to act like this and react like this, to feel this and want this" – but in terms of species-wide capacities: capabilities for action and imagination, liabilities for suffering and cruelty. The contributors approach "the human" with an awareness of these complexities and particularities, rendering this volume unique in its ability to build on anthropology's ethnographic expertise.