Recent experimental studies have claimed to find evidence for the view that natural kind terms such as "water" are ambiguous: that they have two extensions, one determined by superficial properties, the other by underlying essence. In an online experiment, we presented to 600 participants scenarios describing discoveries of novel samples that differ in deep structure from samples of a familiar kind but are superficially identical, such as a water-like substance that is not composed of H2 O. We used three different types of question sets to probe whether the participants considered the sample as a member of the kind or not. Our results did not confirm the predictions of the ambiguity view. They were, rather, consistent with views that take underlying essences to be the sole criterion for membership in a natural kind. © 2023 The Authors. Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Cognitive Science Society (CSS).
Citation
Jussi Haukioja, Jeske Toorman, Giosuè Baggio, Jussi Jylkkä. Are Natural Kind Terms Ambiguous? Cognitive science. 2023 Sep;47(9):e13335
PMID: 37668103
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