Abstract:
Plato's often-quoted statement in the Phaedrus that we should
"cut up each kind according to its species along its natural joints"
(265e) has become an influential metaphor in discussions of natural kinds and
natural properties. In this talk, I will investigate the source domain
of the metaphor, the joints of the animal body, to determine both what we might
mean by "natural joints" and whether osteological joints are indeed
natural. In the course of the discussion I will consider what impact the
investigation should have on our understanding of natural kinds and on the
metaphors we use to describe them.