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So, this is a place to write down my reminders about what The Ant Trap was about.

Chapter 1 was a great motivation. I think I’ma skip to Part 2 though to get to the stuff about groups. I also read the author’s Precis / summary online (Google), which was good, I guess….? Not sure what I remember other than that he thinks people get all kinds of things wrong because they’re working from the wrong framework.

In Part 2 he applies his framework, and even though I haven’t read it yet, my plan is to “skip backwards” as needed. We’ll see. Ok.

TODO: Also, write Mitch about his agent. DONE!

Ok, so groups are not sets.

There are 4 main existing views on groups. e.g. mobs, or economic entities, or formal setups, or small groups.

We need to think about metaphysics and constituency.

5 views on constitution. the one with atoms he calls “nihilism”.

C.,

I got very excited upon finally finding Epstein’s section on “Social Kinds” (pp. 67-69). As I began reading I got animated as he talked about categories and classification…and then suddenly it was over. In the entire book he devotes only a page and a half to the topic of social kinds, and basically just says “social kinds or what you think they are and it’s totally OK to just be vague about them.” :-O.

He doesn’t really bother to develop differences between natural kinds and social kinds, it basically says social kinds function like natural kinds.. :-O

I don’t see how categories like “race“ are easily hand-waved away as being intuitive! LOL.

I’m sure he has a lot of other interesting things to say, but, I’m not sure how to “trust“ him as an author after this. Think I’ll stop.

…I notice that “race” and “racial” never even appear in the book at all.

References