Theorizing with a Purpose: The Many Kinds of Sex
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theorizing_with_a_purpose_final_june_2.pdf
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254.13 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5493779782e2f98d3b236365a6a64dc1
Author(s)
Haslanger, Sally
Date Issued
December 2015
Journal
Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Citation
Haslanger, Sally. "Theorizing with a Purpose: The Many Kinds of Sex." Natural Kinds and Classification in Scientific Practice. Routledge, 2015.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The idea of a natural kind purports to be of something that constitutes “the world’s joints” and is captured in good explanations. Traditionally, natural kinds are assumed to be “mind-independent.” But a plausible account of explanation takes it to be a practice of asking and answering questions. Explanations should be evaluated as answers to legitimate questions; good answers are not always in terms of “mindindependent” kinds. Drawing on the example of sex, this paper explores some of the ways differences in the word are either marked or created by us, and how these differences matter for our explanatory purposes. I argue, following Epstein (2015), that explanatory kinds can be both anchored and grounded in social facts and, moreover, that explanatory projects – like other practical projects - depend on theoretical scaffolds to provide means toward our ends.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315619934
