ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses existing taxonomies and argues that none of them is fully satisfying. The discussion focuses on a selection of taxonomies that reveal important insights into the distinction between the normative and the descriptive domain. The aim is to settle questions concerning the function, the purpose, and the status of classifications as well as the framework within which it must be carried out. The chapter draws important lessons from difficulties and objections existing taxonomies face. The discussion of the accounts follows a three-part structure: a presentation of the taxonomy, a discussion of its limits and its bearing on the autonomy debate, finally, arguments for particular consequences for the taxonomic project. The consequences provide the ground for a new taxonomy developed in the next chapter. Three existing taxonomic accounts serve as starting points for the discussion (Sections ‘Normative Components’, ‘Normative Ontological Commitments’, and ‘(In-)Variance under Normative Changes’). Thereafter, the more general question of whether taxonomic status should be seen as relative to context is addressed. It is argued that context-relative approaches do not satisfy the previously outlined desiderata for a taxonomy (Section ‘Taxonomic Relativism’). Finally, the chapter argues that the descriptive-normative distinction cannot be adequately captured in an intensional framework (Section ‘Intensional Taxonomies’).
