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Biological Essentialism
Biological Essentialism
MICHAEL DEVITT
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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© Michael Devitt 2023
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First Edition published in 2023
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022947259
ISBN 978–0–19–884028–2
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198840282.001.0001
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For Pegg, a real beaut sheila
Contents
Preface xi
1. Resurrecting Biological Essentialism 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Evidence of the Consensus 5
1.3 An Argument for Intrinsic Biological Essentialism 7
1.4 Relational Species Concepts 10
1.5 A Crucial Distinction 12
1.6 Species Concepts and the Category Problem (2) 13
1.7 BSC, ENC, and the Taxon Problem (1) 15
1.8 The Conspecificity Route to Error about the Taxon Problem (1) 19
1.9 P-CC and the Taxon Problem (1) 22
1.10 Variation and Change 25
1.11 Conclusion 33
2. Defending Partly Intrinsic Taxon Essentialism 35
2.1 Introduction 35
2.2 Clarifications 36
2.3 Three Important Distinctions 38
2.4 Variation 42
2.4.1 The Common Cause Hypothesis 42
2.4.2 Genetic Variations 44
2.4.3 Phenotypic Variations 45
2.4.4 Causes of Phenotypic Properties 46
2.4.5 Complicated Developmental Pathways 47
2.4.6 Disjunctive Developmental Pathways 49
2.4.7 Evolving not Timeless 53
2.5 “The Added Metaphysical Claim” 56
2.6 The Irrelevance of the Species Concepts 60
2.7 The Conspecificity Diagnosis 63
2.8 The Relational View of Conspecificity (R-CON) 68
2.9 The Essence of Implements (“Artifacts”) 72
2.10 Godman and Papineau against Partly Intrinsic Taxon
Essentialism 78
2.11 The Historical Species Essentialism of Godman,
Mallozzi, and Papineau 80
2.11.1 The “More Fundamental Objection” 80
2.11.2 The Positive View 82
2.12 Conclusion 84
viii
Although I have mostly worked in the philosophy of language, I have always been
interested in the philosophy of biology. I would tend to go to talks on the subject
when at philosophy conferences. Some of my best friends are philosophers of
biology. But it was not until 2003 that I started working on the subject. I was
prompted do so in writing a paper defending the linguistic thesis that the
Kripkean notion of “rigidity” we need for kind terms is one of rigid application
not one of rigid designation (2005).¹ The prompt came because this thesis, when
applied to the likes of ‘tiger’, raised issues of biological essentialism. That led me to
read a very instructive paper by Samir Okasha (2002) in which he set out the
received views about essentialism in the philosophy of biology. These views struck
me as quite wrong. For, they deny any intrinsic genetic component to the essence
of a species or other biological taxon. And they implicitly deny that any member
of a species is essentially a member.
So, without more ado, I wrote an eight-page piece I called, “Some Heretical
Thoughts on Biological Essentialism”. I sent this to every philosopher of biology
I knew, and many I did not. This had two surprising consequences. First, the
volume of response was astounding: initial responses together with follow-up
discussions amounted to 100 pages. Second, given the consensus, I expected the
experts to identify deep flaws in these “heretical thoughts”. Yet this did not
happen. I was corrected, informed, and guided on many matters, always in a
wonderfully helpful way, and yet my basic argument for biological essentialism
seemed to me to survive fairly intact. That argument was, in brief, that biological
explanation demanded intrinsic essences. So, to the horror of some friends, I went
seriously to work on these issues. This led to several publications, starting with
“Resurrecting Biological Essentialism” (2008), and finally to this book.
While writing the book in 2020, some other related, and rather “hot”, issues
pressed in on me: issues of biological race “realism” and essentialism. I decided to
include those issues in the book.
So, what are the issues that concern the book? Setting aside race for a moment,
the issues are as follows:
1. What is it to be a member of a particular biological taxon? In virtue of what is
an organism, say, a Canis lupus? What makes it one? These are various ways to ask
¹ I first presented this linguistic thesis in Devitt and Sterelny (1999: 85), largely stimulated by my
anonymous reviewing of what was to become LaPorte (2000).
xii
about the ‘essence’, ‘nature’, ‘identity’, even ‘definition’, of a particular taxon. They
raise the issue of taxon essentialism.
2. What it is to be a particular individual organism? In virtue of what is an
organism, say, the Queen? What makes it her? These are various ways to ask about
the “essence”, “nature”, or “identity” of a particular individual. They raise the issue
of individual essentialism.
3. If an individual organism belongs to a taxon does it do so essentially? This is
the issue of essential membership. Clearly, if we had answers to both taxon
essentialism and individual essentialism we would have an answer to essential
membership: an organism O is essentially a member of a taxon T iff an organism
having the essence of O entails its having the essence of T.
These essentialism issues have been much discussed by metaphysicians. Thus,
on taxon essentialism, Saul Kripke (1980), Hilary Putnam (1975), and David
Wiggins (1980) have proposed views that are similar to mine. My view is that
the essence of a taxon, particularly a species, is (at least partly) an intrinsic,
underlying, probably largely genetic property. This view accords with common
sense and has been widely accepted in philosophy. These authors also embraced
essential membership. And, talking about the Queen in particular, Kripke has
urged a view on individual essentialism: her origin in certain gametes from certain
parents is essential to her. This “origin essentialism” has stirred controversy
among metaphysicians.
The methodology of the metaphysicians is to appeal to intuitions.
What have philosophers of biology had to say on these issues? The contrast
with metaphysicians could hardly be more stark. First, philosophers of biology
(and biologists) are dismissive of the popular Kripkean view on taxon essentialism.
The idea that a species has an underlying intrinsic essence is thought to smack of
“Aristotelian essentialism” and reflect a naive and uninformed view of biology that
is incompatible with Darwinism. Clearly, if the essence of a species is not intrinsic
it must be relational (assuming that it has an essence at all). The consensus is
indeed that the essence is relational: for an organism to be a member of a certain
species, it must have a certain history. Second, until recently, the issue of essential
membership had been largely ignored in philosophy of biology. Insofar as it has
been addressed it has been rejected. Third, the issue of individual essentialism has
been totally ignored in philosophy of biology.
The methodology of philosophers of biology is to appeal to biological theory.
In “Resurrecting”, I went along with the consensus in accepting, without
argument, that there is an historical component to the essence of a taxon.
However, I went sharply against the consensus, particularly over species, in
arguing that there is also an underlying intrinsic component. So I sided with
Kripke and the folk against the philosophers of biology. But I did so following the
methodology of philosophers of biology: I appealed to biological explanations not
intuitions. This book starts with a reprint of “Resurrecting” in Chapter 1.
xiii
Michael Devitt
Hudson, NY
October, 2022
1
Resurrecting Biological Essentialism
1.1 Introduction
The idea that biological natural kinds, particularly a species like dogs, have
intrinsic underlying natures is intuitively appealing.¹ It has been shown to be
widespread even among children (Keil 1989). It was endorsed by a great philoso-
pher, Aristotle. Under the influence of the logical positivists, Popper (1950), Quine
(1960), and others, it fell from philosophical favor in the twentieth century until
revived by Saul Kripke (1980), Hilary Putnam (1975), and David Wiggins (1980).
Many philosophers probably now take the view for granted. If so, they are right
out of touch with biologists and, especially, philosophers of biology. For, the
consensus among philosophers of biology, and a widespread view among biolo-
gists, is that this sort of “Aristotelian essentialism” is deeply wrong, reflecting
“typological” thinking instead of the recommended “population” thinking (Sober
1980: 247–8). This essentialism is thought to arise from a naive and uninformed
view of biology, indeed to be incompatible with Darwinism.² This view is nicely
presented and argued for in a paper by Samir Okasha (2002). I shall take that as
my main text. I shall defend intrinsic biological essentialism. I think that the
children are right and the philosophers of biology, wrong.³
¹ First published in the Philosophy of Science, 75 (Devitt 2008). Reprinted in Putting Metaphysics
First: Essays on Metaphysics and Epistemology (Devitt 2010) with some additional material in footnotes,
identified by “[2009 addition]”. Many of these additions remain in the present version. Some others
have been added, identified as “[2022 addition]”.
² Michael Ruse places Kripke, Putnam, and Wiggins “somewhere to the right of Aristotle” and talks
of them showing “an almost proud ignorance of the organic world” (1987: 358n). John Dupré argues
that the views of Putnam and Kripke are fatally divergent from “some actual biological facts and
theories” (1981: 66). [2009 addition] The standard story is that biology was in the grip of classical
essentialism until saved by Darwin. Polly Winsor (2006) argues persuasively that this story is a
fabrication of Ernst Mayr’s.
³ This paper was prompted by writing another one defending the thesis that the notion of rigidity we
need for kind terms is one of rigid application not one of rigid designation (Devitt 2005). The view that
natural kind terms are rigid appliers has the metaphysical consequence that a member of a natural kind
Biological Essentialism. Michael Devitt, Oxford University Press. © Michael Devitt 2023.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198840282.003.0001
2
is essentially a member. This sort of “individual essentialism” needs to be distinguished from the “kind
essentialism” that is the concern of the present paper. [2022 addition] Individual essentialism is
discussed in Chapter 4.
⁴ Biological essentialism is usually taken to be concerned only with what is intrinsic (e.g., Mayr 1963:
16; Sober 1993: 146; Wilson 1999b: 188). This reflects the influence of Aristotle. I think it more helpful
to define essentialism in a more general way so that issues come down to the sort of essence that a
kind has.
⁵ Locke called an underlying intrinsic essence that is causally responsible for the observable
properties of its kind a “real essence”. This is contrasted with a “nominal essence” which is picked
out by reference-determining descriptions associated with a kind term. So, having atomic number 79 is
the real essence of gold and the essence of being Australian, whatever it may be, is merely nominal.
Kripke and Putnam showed that natural kind terms like ‘gold’ are not associated with reference-
determining descriptions and so do not pick out nominal essences; they pick out real essences without
describing them. This is not to say that a term could not pick out a nominal essence that is also real;
indeed, ‘having atomic number 79’ is such a term (cf. Boyd 1999: 146).
⁶ I say “thought to fall” because I sympathize with the doubts of some about this hierarchy;
see Ereshefsky (1999; 2001); Mishler (1999). [2022 addition] There is a discussion of these doubts
later (6.7).
3
(ii) I include the qualification “at least partly” because I shall not take issue with
the consensus that a species is partly an historical entity.⁷
(iii) In sexual organisms the intrinsic underlying properties in question are to
be found among the properties of zygotes; in asexual ones, among those of
propagules and the like.⁸ For most organisms the essential intrinsic properties
are probably largely, although not entirely, genetic. Sometimes those properties
may not be genetic at all but in “the architecture of chromosomes”, “developmen-
tal programs” or whatever (Kitcher 1984: 123).⁹ For convenience, I shall often
write as if the essential intrinsic properties were simply genetic but I emphasize
that my Essentialism is not committed to this.
(iv) Intrinsic Biological Essentialism would certainly be opposed by the consen-
sus because of its commitment to intrinsic essences. But the consensus should not
be opposed to biological essentialism in general because, as I am understanding
essentialism, the consensus is that species have essences but these are extrinsic or
relational. And Kim Sterelny and Paul Griffiths, in their excellent introduction to
the philosophy of biology, Sex and Death, are explicitly not opposed to this sort
of essentialism: “the essential properties that make a particular organism a
platypus . . . are historical or relational” (1999: 186). Of course, the very term
‘essentialism’ has become so distasteful to biologists because of its association
with Aristotelian metaphysics that a biologist would doubtless be reluctant to
admit to any sort of essentialism. But the essentialism I have defined need not
come with those Aristotelian trappings. Many philosophers would be similarly
reluctant because the term ‘essentialism’ strikes them as quaintly old-fashioned,
scholastic, even unscientific. But such reluctance would be a merely verbal matter.
The issue of essentialism would remain even if the term ‘essentialism’ were
dropped. It is the issue of in virtue of what an organism is a member of a certain
Linnaean taxon; the issue of what makes an organism a member of that taxon; the
issue of the very nature of the taxon. I stick with ‘essentialism’ because it is the
⁷ However, I say that the essences are “at least, partly” intrinsic rather than simply “partly” because
I do wonder whether all species are, or should be, partly historical. Citing the possibility of regularly
produced hybrids like the lizard Cnemidophorus tesselatus, Philip Kitcher claims that “it is not
necessary, and it may not even be true, that all species are historically connected” (1984: 117). [2022
addition] Historical essentialism is discussed in Chapter 3.
⁸ What I would like is a term for asexual organisms that is like ‘zygote’ for sexual ones in referring to
the beginning of an organism. John Wilkins informs me that there is no one term for this. Others he
mentions include ‘bud’ and ‘gemmule’. He has also drawn my attention to other uses of ‘propagule’.
Thus, consider the following definition:
In animals, the minimum number of individuals of a species capable of colonizing a new
area. This may be fertilized eggs, a mated female, a single male and a single female, or a
whole group of organisms depending upon the biological and behavioral requirements of
the species. In plants, a propagule is whatever structure functions to reproduce the species: a
seed, spore, stem or root cutting, etc. http://www.radford.edu/~swoodwar%20/CLASSES/
GEOG235/glossary.html
⁹ Webster and Goodwin (1996) promote the idea of “morphogenetic fields”.
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