Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds

Helen Beebee is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, UK.  Nigel Sabbarton-Leary is completing his PhD at the University of Birmingham, UK

• Acknowledgments 1: Introduction, Helen Beebee and Nigel Sabbarton-Leary 2: Rigidity, Natural Kind Terms and Metasemantics, Corine Besson 3: General Terms as Designators: A Defence of The View, Genoveva Martí and José Martínez-Fernández 4: Are Natural Kind Terms Special? Åsa Wikforss 5: The Commonalities Between Proper Names and Natural Kind Terms: A Fregean Perspective, Harold Noonan 6: Theoretical Identity Statements, Their Truth, and Their Discovery, Joseph LaPorte 7: Discovering the Essences of Natural Kinds, Alexander Bird 8: The Elements and Conceptual Change, Robin Hendry 9: On the Abuse of the Necessary A Posterior, Helen Beebee and Nigel Sabbarton-Leary 10: Crosscutting Natural Kinds and the Hierarchy Thesis, Emma Tobin 11: From Constitutional Necessities to Causal Necessities, Jessica Wilson 12: Realism, Natural Kinds and Philosophical Methods, Richard Boyd Notes on Contributors Index

'This is a collection of cutting-edge essays on natural kinds and natural kind terms. It at once makes progress on and serves as an advanced introduction to the important topics it addresses. It contains plenty of interest to both the expert and the non-expert on natural kinds. Supplemented by relevant background material, it would serve excellently as the main text for a semester-long graduate or advanced undergraduate seminar on its topics.'– Notre Dame Philosophical Review