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Ayers, M. (1981) ‘Locke versus Aristotle on Natural Kinds’, Journal of Philosophy
78 (5): 247–272. (Careful and thorough discussion of Locke’s views on the topic.) |
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Dupré, J. (1993) The Disorder of Things, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Steers a course between conventionalism and essentialism.) |
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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.) |
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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.) |
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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 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.) |
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LaPorte, J. (2004) Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Relates natural kinds and natural kind terms to issues of theory change.) |
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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. In that last chapter Locke presents a descriptivist view of natural kind terms.) |
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Putnam, H. (1975) Mind, Language, and Reality, vol. 2 ofPhilosophical Papers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapters 8 and 10–12 are relevant and best read in that order.) |
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Riggs, P. (1996) Natural Kinds, Laws of Nature, and Scientific Methodology, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press. (A collection of papers including sophisticated defences of essentialism about both natural kinds and laws of nature.) |
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Schwartz, S. P. (1977) Naming, Necessity, and Natural Kinds, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (A collection which reprints important papers by Kripke, Putnam and others. It also contains a helpful introduction and a comprehensive bibliography.) |
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Soames, S. (2002) Beyond Rigidity: The Unfinished Semantic Agenda of
Naming and Necessity, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Chapters 10 and 11 explore direct reference theories of natural kind terms.) |
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van Fraassen, B. (1980) The Scientific Image, Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Chapters 1–3 present van Fraassen’s brand of empiricism.) |
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Wilkerson, T. E. (1995) Natural Kinds, Aldershot: Avebury Press. (Lucid defence of essentialism about both natural kinds and laws of nature.) |
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Wolfram, S. (1989) Philosophical Logic: An Introduction, London: Routledge. (Chapter 7, §1, ‘General Terms and Natural Kinds’, is extremely clear and a good place to start. The end of the chapter lists further reading.) |