Philosophy without natural kinds: a reply to Reydon & Ereshefsky

The tradition of natural kinds has shaped philosophical debates about scientific classification but has come under growing criticism. Responding to this criticism, Reydon and Ereshefsky present their grounded functionality account as a strategy for updating and defending the tradition of natural kinds. This article argues that grounded functionality does indeed provide a fruitful philosophical approach to scientific classification but does not convince as a general theory of natural kinds. Instead, the strengths and limitations of Reydon and Ereshefsky's account illustrate why it is time to move beyond general definitions of "natural kind" and experiment with new philosophical frameworks.

'Ethnobiological equivocation' and other misunderstandings in the interpretation of natures

In this contribution we seek to enrich the theoretical and methodological approaches of ethnobiology. The essay takes elements of Amerindian anthropology, classical ethnobiological studies and the freedoms provided by feminist philosophers to open up reflection. The central background of the essay is the method of "controlled equivocation" proposed by Viveiros de Castro (2004). We present a series of five ethnobiological equivocations ranging from the categorical equivocal, going through the subtle equivocal to the strictly ontological ones. The cases occurred in different territories of Argentina, including a case in an academic context. Through the fieldwork cases, we give an account of the origin of equivocations, the context for their emergence, which are the disciplinary nuances that cause them and even some academics' preconceptions. To inhabit the equivocation allows opening the possibilities of coexistence among people -and their respective worlds-, especially if these people are in different power positions. We propose the method of controlled equivocation as a theoretical-discursive tool, which permits us to rethink the current concepts of ethnobiology. Thus, we want to broaden the current definition of ethnobiology understood as a dialogue from different scientific points of view.

Mental health, normativity, and local knowledge in global perspective

Approaching mental health on a global scale with particular reference to low- and mid-income countries raises issues concerning the disregard of the local context and values and the imposition of values characteristic of the Global North. Seeking a philosophical viewpoint to surmount these problems, the present paper argues for a value-laden framework for psychiatry with the specific incorporation of value pluralism, particularly in relation to the Global South context, while also emphasizing personal values such as the choice of treatment. In sketching out this framework, the paper aims to overcome the clash between universalism and relativism about psychiatric categories by focusing on how overlaps between cultures can contribute to ontology-building. A case study analyzing ethnopsychiatric research in the context of South India will illustrate the proposed view, while also pointing out avenues for further research on the causal efficacy of local shared beliefs about mental disorder. If approaches across different traditions and theoretical frames are shown to work in treating similar ailments, causal connections appear to cut across the different ontologies. Ethnopsychiatry would play a central role in such research, namely in disclosing the variables and mechanisms at work within the local approaches.

Representing and coordinating ethnobiological knowledge

Indigenous peoples possess enormously rich and articulated knowledge of the natural world. A major goal of research in anthropology and ethnobiology as well as ecology, conservation biology, and development studies is to find ways of integrating this knowledge with that produced by academic and other institutionalized scientific communities. Here I present a challenge to this integration project. I argue, by reference to ethnographic and cross-cultural psychological studies, that the models of the world developed within specialized academic disciplines do not map onto anything existing within traditional beliefs and practices for coping with nature. Traditional ecological knowledge is distributed across a heterogeneous array of overlapping practices within Indigenous cultures, including spiritual and ritual practices that invoke categories, properties, and causal-explanatory models that do not in general converge with those of the academic sciences. In light of this divergence I argue that we should abandon the integration project, and conclude by sketching a notion of knowledge coordination as a possible successor framework.

Intercultural science education as a trading zone between traditional and academic knowledge

Intercultural science education requires negotiations between knowledge systems and of tensions between them. Building on ethnographic fieldwork and educational interventions in two farming communities in the Northeast of Brazil, we explore the potential of science education to mediate between traditional and academic knowledge. While traditional knowledge shapes agricultural practices and interactions with the environment in the villages of Coração de Maria and Retiro, academic knowledge is emphasized in biology education. On the basis of philosophical debates about "partial overlaps" between epistemologies, ontologies and value systems, we analyze relations between traditional and academic ecological knowledge in these communities and argue that they can inform reflective practices in intercultural dialogue. By investigating biology education as a "trading zone" between knowledge systems, we analyze how partial overlaps become negotiated in educational practices in rural Brazil and provide the basis for educational interventions that foster intercultural dialogue.