Population is Not a Natural Kind of Kinds
Biological Theory 5 (2):154-160 (2010)
| Abstract | Millstein (2009) argues against conceptual pluralism with respect to the definition of “population,” and proposes her own definition of the term. I challenge both Millstein's negative arguments against conceptual pluralism and her positive proposal for a singular definition of population. The concept of population, I argue, does not refer to a natural kind; populations are constructs of biologists variably defined by contexts of inquiry. | |||||||||
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Roberta L. Millstein (2010). Should We Be Population Pluralists? A Reply to Stegenga. Biological Theory 5 (3):271-276.
Mohan Matthen (1984). Ostension, Names and Natural Kind Terms. Dialogue 23 (01):44-58.
Roberta L. Millstein (2006). Natural Selection as a Population-Level Causal Process. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 (4):627-653.
Roberta L. Millstein & Robert A. Skipper (2007). Population Genetics. In David L. Hull & Michael Ruse (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge University Press.
Robert D.'Amico (1995). Is Disease a Natural Kind? Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 20 (5):551-569.
Peter Gildenhuys (2011). Righteous Modeling: The Competence of Classical Population Genetics. Biology and Philosophy 26 (6):813-835.
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Asa Maria Wikforss (2005). Naming Natural Kinds. Synthese 145 (1):65-87.
Louis C. Charland (2002). The Natural Kind Status of Emotion. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53 (4):511-37.
Kourken Michaelian (2011). Is Memory a Natural Kind? Memory Studies 4 (2):170-189.
Kathrin Koslicki (2008). Natural Kinds and Natural Kind Terms. Philosophy Compass 3 (4):789-802.
Margaret Morrison (2004). Population Genetics and Population Thinking: Mathematics and the Role of the Individual. Philosophy of Science 71 (5):1189-1200.
Ingo Brigandt (2009). Natural Kinds in Evolution and Systematics: Metaphysical and Epistemological Considerations. Acta Biotheoretica 57:77-97.
Roberta L. Millstein (2009). Populations as Individuals. Biological Theory 4 (3):267-273.
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