Classifying Reality

Assembling the views of today’s leading metaphysicians on primary issues concerning the structure of reality and its taxonomy, this collection gets straight to the heart of one of the most hotly contested debates between philosophers and scientists. It illuminates its subject from diverse angles that include the principles of evolutionary biology and the nature and identity of animate beings. While some contributors focus on the applied ontology necessary for classifying life in its multitude of forms, others address the problematic question of objectivity. Should we view nature as ‘carved at the joints’, with objective lineaments scientists strive to record, or is the classification of nature itself a wholly mind–dependent matter? The book deftly interweaves these overarching themes with more applied topics such as the taxonomy of disease progression.

Notes on Contributors vii Introduction 1 1 Categorial Predication 5 E. J. Lowe 2 Nature’s Joints: A Realistic Defence of Natural Properties 23 D. H. Mellor 3 Boundaries in Reality 41 Tuomas E. Tahko 4 Contrastive Explanations in Evolutionary Biology 61 Stephen Boulter 5 Animate Beings: Their Nature and Identity 79 Gary S. Rosenkrantz 6 Classifying Processes: An Essay in Applied Ontology 101 Barry Smith Index 127

David S. Oderberg  is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading, UK. He is the author or editor of several books in metaphysics and moral philosophy, and has contributed numerous journal articles on metaphysics, moral philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and other topics. Professor Oderberg’s texts on  Moral Theory  and  Applied Ethics  were both published by Blackwell in 2000, while his most recent book,  Real Essentialism  (2007), sets out a neo–Aristotelian system of metaphysics.