Long-term potentiation

one kind or many?

Jacqueline A. Sullivan

pp. 127-140

in: Marcus P. Adams, Zvi Biener, Uljana Feest, Jacqueline A. Sullivan (eds), Eppur si muove, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

Do neurobiologists aim to discover natural kinds? I address this question in this chapter via a critical analysis of classification practices operative across the 43-year history of research on long-term potentiation (LTP). I suggest that this 43-year history supports the idea that the structure of scientific practice surrounding LTP research has remained an obstacle to the discovery of natural kinds as philosophers of science have traditionally conceived them.