Is there a materialist theory in philosophy that goes beyond giving a dictionary definition of the type/token distinction and attempts to explain what types and tokens really are in material terms, e.g. how this distinction comes about, the forces that generate it, or make it persist, etc.?
3
-
My initial idea for one candidate was Manuel DeLanda's ontology that views each species as "a contingent historical individual" (born with speciation and dying with extinction), but I don't know if "species" here counts as a "type" and neither do I know about its applicability outside of biology, such as in arts (e.g. "Hamlet" as a type and "each performance of Hamlet" as a token).– aliCommented Mar 6, 2021 at 20:40
-
1I haven't read it, but I think Paul Churchland's book Plato's Camera tries to give a neuroscience-based explanation of how the brain generates general type-like categories from specific experiences.– HypnosiflCommented Mar 6, 2021 at 20:57
-
2I think analytic materialism (physicalsim) is sympathetic to scientific realism, which means that "real" types are identified with natural kinds and natural clusters of physical properties, see IEP, Metaphysics of Natural Kinds. For the philosophy of mind angle, where the distinction comes up most often, see van Riel, The Natures of Types and Tokens: On the Metaphysical Commitments of Non-Reductive Physicalism.– ConifoldCommented Mar 7, 2021 at 1:54
Add a comment
|