Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!sdcsvax!ucbvax!STRIPE.SRI.COM!Laws From: Laws@STRIPE.SRI.COM (Ken Laws) Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Natural Kinds Message-ID: <12317674263.16.LAWS@Stripe.SRI.Com> Date: Sun, 12-Jul-87 00:45:36 EDT Article-I.D.: Stripe.12317674263.16.LAWS Posted: Sun Jul 12 00:45:36 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jul-87 03:31:37 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: AIList-Request@STRIPE.SRI.COM Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 9 Approved: ailist@stripe.sri.com I would not be so quick to thank recent philosophers for the concept of natural kinds. While I am not familiar with their contributions, the notion seems similar to "species" in biology and "cluster" in engineering and statistics. Cluster and discriminant analysis go back to at least the 1930s, and have always depended on the tendency of objects under study to group into classes. -- Ken -------