ABSTRACT
Since Quine’s essay, “Natural Kinds,” in 1969, there has been a small explosion of attention to the use of natural kinds in science (Rieppel 2004, 2005a, 2005b; Keller et al. 2003; Boyd 1999, 1991, 1989; Psillos 1999; Wilson 1999; Bhaskar 1998, 1997; Platts 1997; Pessin and Goldberg 1996; Dupre 1993; Kornblith 1993; Hacking 1991a, 1991b; Schwartz 1979, 1977). In this chapter I survey briefly a few of the essential features that make natural kind investigations important today and then explore their extension to social life. In “Realism, Anti-Foundationalism, and the Enthusiasm for Natural Kinds,” Richard Boyd (1991) argues that the core conceptions of our current understanding of natural kinds are fully applicable to the study of social phenomena. I will test this proposal by showing the way natural kind analysis contributes to understanding Marx’s presentation of the commodity in the early pages of Capital. I conclude that Marx’s analysis may be understood to foreshadow today’s sophisticated scientific realism.
