Natural kinds, normative kinds and human behavior

PÉREZ, DIANA INES; CICCIA, LUCIA GABRIELA

Filosofia Unisinos

Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos Editoria de Periódicos Científicos

Año: 2019 vol. 20 p. 256 - 267

The main thesis of this paper is that a large part of human behavior cannot be understoodin terms of natural kinds but by appealing to normative kinds. In the first section we explainthe distinction between natural kinds and normative kinds. In the second section we focuson the notion of ?human behavior?, proposing a distinction between type A and type Bbehaviors and pointing out that psychology deals with type B behaviors, which are alsoincluded as diagnostic criteria for mental disorders. In the third section we analyze the strategiesused in biomedical research to find specific etiologies (?essences?) in order to explainsuch disorders. We argue that their results are inconsistent and that the lack of biomarkersthat are clinically useful to refine the diagnoses is due to the fact that, unlike certain neuropathologies,there are no physiological essences behind such disorders. On the other hand,we argue that, as we are dealing with type B behaviors, we must interpret mental disordersas normative kinds.