People have solved good chunks of “Why do all dogs resemble one another”, which is a problem that Plato cared a lot about. (Mendelian genetics, Darwinian evolution, and our understanding of how the brain clusters perceptions are all parts of the answer here.)
Why not just the last of those? All dogs resemble one another because if they didn’t have a critical resemblance, we wouldn’t use the same label for them. Even today, we often have common-use terms for organisms, where the labels (taken literally) violate post-Darwinian understanding, and that’s because of what the layperson considers a relevant similarity.
In other cases (e.g. “is a whale a fish?”), a deeper awareness of the relevant similarities did cause us to change up our label.
All dogs resemble one another because if they didn’t have a critical resemblance, we wouldn’t use the same label for them.
That would only be a sufficient answer to the question “Why do we have a category called ‘dogs’ such that all of its members resemble one another?”. Genetics, evolution, etc. are indeed necessary to answer the question about the referent rather than the quotation.
That would only be a sufficient answer to the question “Why do we have a category called ‘dogs’ such that all of its members resemble one another?”. Genetics, evolution, etc. are indeed necessary to answer the question about the referent rather than the quotation.
Only because he picked a specific category where the (apparently-significant) physical resemblance did in fact coincide with a genetic resemblance. But because he picked a class of animals (“dogs”) due to other criteria, the answer to that question begins and ends with his classification algorithm and what his mind counts as “doglike”.
It’s quite common (as I made clear) for people to give the same name to genetically distant organisms or organs. The reason for physical similarity in that case is quite different from the reason in the case of the genetically similar organisms.
To base your answer to Plato on dogs’ genetic similarity, you would also have to “explain” sharks and dolphins as being the same species—the “species” of fish.
To base your answer to Plato on dogs’ genetic similarity, you would also have to “explain” sharks and dolphins as being the same species—the “species” of fish.
Here, too, one search out scientific explanations for how the similarities arose—this time having to do partly with how form is passed along within a species (genetics), and partly with convergent evolutionary pressures that lead sharks and dolphins to both have a streamlined shape, flippers, etc.
Yes, I get that. But, again, Plato didn’t create a category isomorphic to modern knowledge of genetic lines. He created a category based on what Greeks at the time deemed “doglike”. And the answer to that question is purely one of “why do you consider a boundary that includes only those things you call ‘dogs’ worthy of its own label?” Only later, as humans gained more knowledge, could they ask more complex questions about organisms that require knowledge of genetics, selection pressures, and convergent evolution. But the Greeks were not then at that point.
Also, explanations having to do with how humans deem something doglike are scientific.
Edit: To make the point clearer, consider ansewring Plato by saying “dogs are similar because genes determine what an animal looks like, animals reproduce by passing genes, and all dogs have similar genes”. Such an answer would be wrong (uninformative) because it uses the premise “animals you give the same label to are similar because they have genes proportionally similar”. This model is wrong, as it requires (per my above comment) you to also tell Plato that “shark-fish and dolphin-fish are similar because genes determine what an animal looks like, animals reproduce by passing genes, and all fish have similar genes.”
It’s not just a matter of labels. We can imagine a world in which every creature was a unique random mishmash of features without regard to any other creature. Empirically, we do not live in such a world; in our world, living organisms come in definite clusters with regularities to their properties. Evolution provides an explanation of why biology does objectively possess this feature.
I understand that. That still doesn’t mean Plato was in a position to be asking a question that requires understanding of evolutionary theory to answer. His question is not much different from him asking, had he lived in the world you posited, why all aerofauns are similar, where “aerofaun” is a label they innocuously came up with for “any creature that flies”.
In that case, as in the actual one, there are huge differences among the aerofauns, more so than there are among dogs or among flying creatures in this world. But, even if that world’s true explanation were “aliens regularly send their randomized automaton toys to earth”, that still wouldn’t mean you need aliens to answer the aerofaun question, because your question is already dissolved by understanding your own categorization system.
Edit: To further clarify the point: In your hypothetical world, the correct (informative, expectation-constraining) answer to a Plato asking “Why are all aerofauns similar?” would be:
“They’re not similar in any objective sense. They simply have one particular similarity that you deem salient—the fact of their flying—and this is obscured by your having been accustomed to using the same label, ‘aerofaun’ for all of them. And the reason for a word’s existence in the first place is because it calls out a human-relevant cluster. Because it matters to humans whether an animal flies or not, we have a word for it. But once you know whether an animal flies, there is no additional fact of the matter as to why the fliers are similar—that similarity is an artifact of the filtering applied before an animal is called an aerofaun.”
Similarly, you should answer Plato: “Dogs aren’t similar in any objective sense. They simply have a few similarities that you deem salient—how they’re adaptable to humans, work in packs, walk on four legs, like meat, bark, etc. -- and this is obscured by your having been accustomed to using the same label, ‘dog’, for all of them. And the reason for a word’s existence in the first place is because it calls out a human-relevant cluster. Because it matters to humans whether an animal has all the traits {friendly to us, works in packs, can’t stand for long, wants meat, and can emit a loud call}, there is no additional fact of the matter as to why dogs are similar—that similarity is an artifact of the filtering applied before an animal is called a dog. Maybe one day we’ll find that some of the things we were calling dogs differ in a critical way—maybe they can’t interbreed with most dogs? -- and we’ll have to change our labeling system.”
Why not just the last of those? All dogs resemble one another because if they didn’t have a critical resemblance, we wouldn’t use the same label for them. Even today, we often have common-use terms for organisms, where the labels (taken literally) violate post-Darwinian understanding, and that’s because of what the layperson considers a relevant similarity.
In other cases (e.g. “is a whale a fish?”), a deeper awareness of the relevant similarities did cause us to change up our label.
That would only be a sufficient answer to the question “Why do we have a category called ‘dogs’ such that all of its members resemble one another?”. Genetics, evolution, etc. are indeed necessary to answer the question about the referent rather than the quotation.
Only because he picked a specific category where the (apparently-significant) physical resemblance did in fact coincide with a genetic resemblance. But because he picked a class of animals (“dogs”) due to other criteria, the answer to that question begins and ends with his classification algorithm and what his mind counts as “doglike”.
It’s quite common (as I made clear) for people to give the same name to genetically distant organisms or organs. The reason for physical similarity in that case is quite different from the reason in the case of the genetically similar organisms.
To base your answer to Plato on dogs’ genetic similarity, you would also have to “explain” sharks and dolphins as being the same species—the “species” of fish.
Here, too, one search out scientific explanations for how the similarities arose—this time having to do partly with how form is passed along within a species (genetics), and partly with convergent evolutionary pressures that lead sharks and dolphins to both have a streamlined shape, flippers, etc.
Yes, I get that. But, again, Plato didn’t create a category isomorphic to modern knowledge of genetic lines. He created a category based on what Greeks at the time deemed “doglike”. And the answer to that question is purely one of “why do you consider a boundary that includes only those things you call ‘dogs’ worthy of its own label?” Only later, as humans gained more knowledge, could they ask more complex questions about organisms that require knowledge of genetics, selection pressures, and convergent evolution. But the Greeks were not then at that point.
Also, explanations having to do with how humans deem something doglike are scientific.
Edit: To make the point clearer, consider ansewring Plato by saying “dogs are similar because genes determine what an animal looks like, animals reproduce by passing genes, and all dogs have similar genes”. Such an answer would be wrong (uninformative) because it uses the premise “animals you give the same label to are similar because they have genes proportionally similar”. This model is wrong, as it requires (per my above comment) you to also tell Plato that “shark-fish and dolphin-fish are similar because genes determine what an animal looks like, animals reproduce by passing genes, and all fish have similar genes.”
It’s not just a matter of labels. We can imagine a world in which every creature was a unique random mishmash of features without regard to any other creature. Empirically, we do not live in such a world; in our world, living organisms come in definite clusters with regularities to their properties. Evolution provides an explanation of why biology does objectively possess this feature.
I understand that. That still doesn’t mean Plato was in a position to be asking a question that requires understanding of evolutionary theory to answer. His question is not much different from him asking, had he lived in the world you posited, why all aerofauns are similar, where “aerofaun” is a label they innocuously came up with for “any creature that flies”.
In that case, as in the actual one, there are huge differences among the aerofauns, more so than there are among dogs or among flying creatures in this world. But, even if that world’s true explanation were “aliens regularly send their randomized automaton toys to earth”, that still wouldn’t mean you need aliens to answer the aerofaun question, because your question is already dissolved by understanding your own categorization system.
Edit: To further clarify the point: In your hypothetical world, the correct (informative, expectation-constraining) answer to a Plato asking “Why are all aerofauns similar?” would be:
“They’re not similar in any objective sense. They simply have one particular similarity that you deem salient—the fact of their flying—and this is obscured by your having been accustomed to using the same label, ‘aerofaun’ for all of them. And the reason for a word’s existence in the first place is because it calls out a human-relevant cluster. Because it matters to humans whether an animal flies or not, we have a word for it. But once you know whether an animal flies, there is no additional fact of the matter as to why the fliers are similar—that similarity is an artifact of the filtering applied before an animal is called an aerofaun.”
Similarly, you should answer Plato: “Dogs aren’t similar in any objective sense. They simply have a few similarities that you deem salient—how they’re adaptable to humans, work in packs, walk on four legs, like meat, bark, etc. -- and this is obscured by your having been accustomed to using the same label, ‘dog’, for all of them. And the reason for a word’s existence in the first place is because it calls out a human-relevant cluster. Because it matters to humans whether an animal has all the traits {friendly to us, works in packs, can’t stand for long, wants meat, and can emit a loud call}, there is no additional fact of the matter as to why dogs are similar—that similarity is an artifact of the filtering applied before an animal is called a dog. Maybe one day we’ll find that some of the things we were calling dogs differ in a critical way—maybe they can’t interbreed with most dogs? -- and we’ll have to change our labeling system.”