Kathrin Koslicki

Incredibly honest book. Kathrin Koslicki tries very, very hard to construct a (Neo-Aristotelian) philosophy of holism while fighting off opponents who are more than happy to undermine holism by permitting all manner of wholes constructed from a set of parts. (Wholes for Koslicki have material AND formal parts which tends to make non-neo-Aristotelians somewhat nervous.) In an exchange rare in analytic philosophy, there's actual dialog with said opponent culminating in Koslicki admitting that for a whole to exist (naturally and not artifactually), it has to be a member of a natural kind. But what are natural kinds? The book takes you up to that point but then leaves you dangling.… (mehr)