Natural kinds

References and further reading

	Ayers, M. (1981) ‘Locke versus Aristotle on Natural Kinds’, Journal of Philosophy 78 (5): 247–72. (Careful and thorough discussion of Locke’s views on the topic.)
	Fraassen, B. van (1980) The Scientific Image, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Chapters 1–3 present van Fraassen’s brand of empiricism.)
	Goodman, N. (1954) Fact, Fiction, and Forecast, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (See chapters 2 and 3 for the problem of projectibility and one possible solution.)
	Kornblith, H. (1992) Inductive Inference and its Natural Ground, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Part I presents a response to Locke’s views. Part II is an extended discussion of the epistemological issues concerning natural kinds.)
	Kripke, S. (1972) ‘Naming and Necessity’, in D. Davidson and G. Harman (eds) Semantics of Natural Language, Dordrecht: Reidel, 253–355; repr. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press and Oxford University Press, 1980. (Kripke’s views on natural kinds and natural-kind terms are developed from his more general views about how names refer. Lecture III presents his views on natural kinds, but begins with a helpful summary of the conclusions reached in the preceding lectures.)
	Locke, J. (1689) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975. (Locke’s views on natural kinds are found particularly in book 2 chapter 27, and in book 3 chapters 3 and 6.)
	Putnam, H. (1975) Mind, Language, and Reality: Philosophical Papers volume II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapters 8, and 10–12 are relevant and best read in that order.)
	Riggs, P. (1996) Natural Kinds, Laws of Nature, and Scientific Methodology, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press. (Collection of papers including sophisticated defences of essentialism about both natural kinds and laws of nature.)
	Schwartz, S.P. (1977) Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds, London and Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (Collection which reprints important papers by Kripke, Putnam, and others. It also contains a helpful introduction and a comprehensive bibliography.)
	Wilkerson, T.E. (1995) Natural Kinds, Aldershot: Avebury Press. (Lucid defence of essentialism about both natural kinds and laws of nature.)
	Wolfram, S. (1989) Philosophical Logic: An Introduction, London and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 7 §1 is extremely clear and a good place to start. The end of the chapter lists further reading.)