Defending a Functional Kinds Account of Law

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Mihal
Keyword(s):  
Functional Kinds

scholarly journals Functional kinds: a skeptical look

Synthese ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 192 (12) ◽  
pp. 3915-3942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Buckner
Keyword(s):  
Functional Kinds

scholarly journals New functionalism and the social and behavioral sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Beck ◽  
James D. Grayot
Keyword(s):  
Social And Behavioral Sciences ◽  
Behavioral Sciences ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Special Sciences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Style Of Thought ◽  
Functional Kinds ◽  
Double Impact

AbstractFunctionalism about kinds is still the dominant style of thought in the special sciences, like economics, psychology, and biology. Generally construed, functionalism is the view that states or processes can be individuated based on what role they play rather than what they are constituted of or realized by. Recently, Weiskopf (2011a, 2011b) has posited a reformulation of functionalism on the model-based approach to explanation. We refer to this reformulation as ‘new functionalism’. In this paper, we seek to defend new functionalism and to recast it in light of the concrete explanatory aims of the special sciences. In particular, we argue that the assessment of the explanatory legitimacy of a functional kind needs to take into account the explanatory purpose of the model in which the functional kind is employed. We aim at demonstrating this by appealing to model-based explanations from the social and behavioral sciences. Specifically, we focus on preferences and signals as functional kinds. Our argument is intended to have the double impact of deflecting criticisms against new functionalism from the perspective of mechanistic decomposition while also expanding the scope of new functionalism to encompass the social and behavioral sciences.

scholarly journals The Illusion of Determinism and Free Will as a Functional Kinds Term

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-270
Author(s):  
Mo, Kiryong
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Functional Kinds

scholarly journals Legal Realism and Functional Kinds: Michael Moore’s Metaphysically Reductionist Naturalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-107
Author(s):  
Torben Spaak
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Legal Realism ◽  
Natural Properties ◽  
Theory Of Law ◽  
Functional Kinds ◽  
Michael Moore

Michael Moore defends an account of scientific, mental, moral, and legal properties, according to which there are not only natural kinds, but also moral and functional kinds; and he maintains, more specifically that: 1) distinctively legal phenomena, such as legal rights, precedent, malice, etc. are functional kinds, in the sense that they have a nature that consists in the function they fulfill in law, 2) the function of a functional kind is that effect, or those effects, of the functional kind that causally contribute more than does any of its other effects to the goal of the larger system within which it occurs, and 3) functional kinds can be reduced to indefinitely large disjunctions of natural properties, 4) the relevant version of naturalism is metaphysically reductionist naturalism, and 5) functional kinds play an indispensable role in the explanation of human behaviour. I argue, however, 1) that the method for determining the function of a (purported) functional kind proposed by Moore is too indeterminate to be able to pin down the function. I also argue 2) that it turns out to be very difficult to identify the properties that are part of the indefinitely large disjunction of natural properties which, on Moore’s analysis, is identical to a functional kind, 3) that functional kinds cannot be part of the best explanation of human behaviour, because they lack nomological unity, and that they lack such unity because they are necessarily multiply realizable, and 4) that Moore will therefore have to give up: a) the view that functional kinds are identical to indefinitely large disjunctions of natural properties, b) the view that functional kinds are part of the best explanation of human behaviour, or both (a and b). I also argue 5) that the idea of a functional kind should not play a central role in any theory of law or legal reasoning.

scholarly journals Methods for determining the botanical origin of honey

10.5219/1386 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 483-493
Author(s):  
Leonora Adamchuk ◽  
Vladyslav Sukhenko ◽  
Oleksandra Akulonok ◽  
Tetiana Bilotserkivets ◽  
Volodymyr Vyshniak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Pollen Grains ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Botanical Origin ◽  
Acacia Species ◽  
Nmr Spectrometry ◽  
Acacia Honey ◽  
Spectrometry Technique ◽  
Functional Kinds ◽  
Organoleptic Parameters

The demand for monofloral, original, and special (functional) kinds of honey, or those with geographical indication, is forecast. At the same time, there is a need to improve the methods for determining the botanical and geographical origin of honey. The purpose of the research was to select and apply a variety of techniques for identifying the botanical origin of honey for its correspondence to acacia species. Samples of honey from the Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro regions extracted in the spring and summer period were used in the research. Organoleptic, physicochemical, NMR spectrometry, and advanced melissopalynology methods were applied. The tests were carried out at the laboratories of the Department of Certification and Standardization of Agricultural Products, NULES, Ukraine; the Ukrainian Laboratory of Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products; and the Bruker BioSpin GmbH company (Germany). According to the research results, the requirements for acacia honey were met by the organoleptic method for samples B1 and B2; by the physicochemical method for A0 and A2; by NMR spectroscopy for not a single sample, all being assessed as polyfloral; and by pollen analysis for B1 and B2. The conducted studies confirm the need for a comprehensive approach to the identification of the botanical origin of honey for its conformity to acacia species. There is a need to review the physicochemical indicators for the compliance of honey with the acacia species obtained in Ukraine. After all, even the modern NMR spectrometry technique indicated that the specially fabricated sample that did not contain acacia pollen grains was acacia honey. Identification of the botanical origin of monofloral honey, in particular acacia, should be carried out in the following sequence: pollen analysis (by dominant pollen grains), safety (presence of antibiotics, pesticides), physicochemical parameters according to international requirements, organoleptic parameters.

scholarly journals The fine-grained metaphysics of artifactual and biological functional kinds

Synthese ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 169 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Carrara ◽  
Pieter E. Vermaas
Keyword(s):  
Fine Grained ◽  
Functional Kinds
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