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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 1996 47(2):303-316; doi:10.1093/bjps/47.2.303
© 1996 by British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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Discussion

Promiscuous Realism

Robert A. Wilson

Department of Philosophy 313 Watson Hall, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6

This paper is a critical discussion of John Dupré's recent defence of promiscuous realism in Part 1 of his The Disorder of Things: Metaphysical Foundations of the Disunity of Science. It also discusses some more general issues in the philosophy of biology and science. Dupré's chief strategy of argumentation appeals to debates within the philosophy of biology, all of which concern the nature of species. While the strategy is well motivated, I argue that Dupré's challenge to essentialist and unificationist views about natural kinds is not successful. One conclusion is that an integrative conception of species is a real alternative to Dupré's pluralism.


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