PHIL 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Ian Hacking, Natural Kind, Intellectual Disability
Document Summary
Putnam"s claim may use our minds in forming/understanding categorized things, but putnam thinks many categories are determined by the way the world is (by the extension, not intension, of words we use) If things belong to a natural kind, grouped because of facts about mind-independent reality example. Hacking, schizophrenic or intellectually disabled person = natural kinds? alternative to this view = things are socially constructed (hacking doesn"t like this) doesn"t reflect things we should be real about how we decide to do things as a culture. Is it real or constructed? bad question because: independent facts. Most important facts have to do with interactions between categories and mind- Focusing on what words mean is not important focusing on dynamics is more important. Childhood: both way people think about childhood and actual lives of children have. Autism: autistic children themselves find current mode of being autistic a way for changed themselves to be.
