Zu einer allgemeinen Ontologie sozialer Pluralitäten

Der Beitrag skizziert die Struktur einer allgemeinen Typologie sozialer Pluralitäten. Es werden drei Haupttypen unterschieden und im Rahmen einer kategorialen Ontologie verortet: Kollektive, die als plurale Individuen interpretiert werden, Klassen, die die extensionalen Korrelate von Universalien darstellen, und Mengen. In Bezug auf Kollektive diskutiere ich die Unterscheidung zwischen summativen und integrierten Ganzheiten sowie den gruppentheoretischen Intentionalismus, im Zusammenhang mit Klassen gehe ich auf die Begriffe „natural kinds“ und „human kinds“ ein

Kollektives Verstehen

Many epistemic attitudes including belief and knowledge have already been examined to determine the extent to which they can be attributed to collectives. The epistemological literature on explanatory understanding and objectual understanding, on the other hand, has focused almost exclusively on individual subjects. However, there are many situations that can be described by sentences of the form “We understand P”, “We understand why p”, “Group G understands P”, or “G understands why p”. As I shall show, these situations can be classified into five categories: distributive, common, joint, deferential, and cooperative understanding. Based on a definitional scheme, according to which the general concept of understanding has a cognitive component, a factivity component, and an epistemic-pro-attitude component, this paper aims to analyse these five types

The Ontology of Interactive Kinds

This paper defends the notions of an interactive kind and a looping effect as features of social and human scientific classifications and aims to give a realist interpretation of them. I argue that interactive kinds can best be modeled as a special case of changing causal property cluster kinds. In order to do so, I develop a typology of looping effects according to the sort of entities that are affected, the main types of which are individual-looping, category-looping, and kind-looping. Based on this distinction, I identify interactive kinds as those causal property cluster kinds that are subjected to kind-looping

The Ontology of Interactive Kinds

This paper defends the notions of an interactive kind and a looping effect as features of social and human scientific classifications and aims to give a realist interpretation of them. I argue that interactive kinds can best be modeled as a special case of changing causal property cluster kinds. In order to do so, I develop a typology of looping effects according to the sort of entities that are affected, the main types of which are individual-looping, category-looping, and kind-looping. Based on this distinction, I identify interactive kinds as those causal property cluster kinds that are subjected to kind-looping

Institution Types and Institution Tokens: An Unproblematic Distinction?

The distinction between institution types and institution tokens plays an important role in Francesco Guala’s philosophy of institutions. In this commentary, I argue that this distinction faces a number of difficulties that are not sufficiently addressed in Understanding Institutions. In particular, I critically discuss Guala’s comparison between the taxonomy of organisms and the taxonomy of institutions, consider the semantics of institution terms on different levels in this taxonomy, and argue for an alternative solution to the problem of how to reconcile reformism and realism about institutions like marriage

Disease as a vague and thick cluster concept

Stoecker R, Keil G. Disease as a vague and thick cluster concept. In: Keil G, Keuck L, Hauswald R, eds. Vagueness in Psychiatry. International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press; 2016: 46-74