ABSTRACT
What can the ‘practice turn’ contribute to our understanding of natural kinds, and of taxonomy and classification in general? Through a few simple chemical examples, I wish to illustrate how fundamental classificatory concepts become refined and corrected through our practical scientific engagement with nature. Any considerable and lasting success of such engagement generates confidence in the classificatory concepts used in it, and invites us to consider them as ‘natural’. And what is considered natural will evolve along with the general progress of science, in a similar way as William Whewell and more recently Michael Friedman saw even ‘necessary’ truths evolving over the course of the history of science. 1 It is important to discuss chemical cases here, because chemistry is often taken to supply some of the best examples of timeless natural kinds that are characterized in an essentialist manner (e.g., ‘water’ as H2O and ‘gold’ defined by atomic number 79).
