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Class (philosophy)
 
 
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Philosophers sometimes distinguish classes from types
Type (metaphysics)

In metaphysics, a type is a category of being. A human is a type of thing; a cloud is a type of object ; and so on. A particular instance of a type is called a token of that thing; so Socrates was a token of a human being, but is not any longer since he is dead....
 and kinds
Natural kind

In philosophy a natural kind is a grouping of things which is a natural grouping, not an artificial one. Or, it is something a set of things has in common which distinguishes it from other things as a real set rather than as a group of things arbitrarily lumped together by a person or group of people....
. We can talk about the class of human beings, just as we can talk about the type (or natural kind), human being, or humanity. How, then, might classes differ from types? One might well think they are not actually different categories of being
Category of being

In metaphysics , the different kinds or ways of being are called categories of being or simply categories. According to the Aristotle tradition, a being is anything that can be said to be in the various senses of this word....
, but typically, while both are treated as abstract object
Abstract object

An abstract object is an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a Type_ of thing . In philosophy, an important distinction is whether an object is considered abstract or concrete....
s, classes are not usually treated as universals
Universal (metaphysics)

In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things....
, whereas types usually are.






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Philosophers sometimes distinguish classes from types
Type (metaphysics)

In metaphysics, a type is a category of being. A human is a type of thing; a cloud is a type of object ; and so on. A particular instance of a type is called a token of that thing; so Socrates was a token of a human being, but is not any longer since he is dead....
 and kinds
Natural kind

In philosophy a natural kind is a grouping of things which is a natural grouping, not an artificial one. Or, it is something a set of things has in common which distinguishes it from other things as a real set rather than as a group of things arbitrarily lumped together by a person or group of people....
. We can talk about the class of human beings, just as we can talk about the type (or natural kind), human being, or humanity. How, then, might classes differ from types? One might well think they are not actually different categories of being
Category of being

In metaphysics , the different kinds or ways of being are called categories of being or simply categories. According to the Aristotle tradition, a being is anything that can be said to be in the various senses of this word....
, but typically, while both are treated as abstract object
Abstract object

An abstract object is an object which does not exist at any particular time or place, but rather exists as a Type_ of thing . In philosophy, an important distinction is whether an object is considered abstract or concrete....
s, classes are not usually treated as universals
Universal (metaphysics)

In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things....
, whereas types usually are. Whether natural kinds ought to be considered universals is vexed; see natural kind
Natural kind

In philosophy a natural kind is a grouping of things which is a natural grouping, not an artificial one. Or, it is something a set of things has in common which distinguishes it from other things as a real set rather than as a group of things arbitrarily lumped together by a person or group of people....
.

There is, in any case, a difference in how we talk about types and kinds versus how we talk about classes. We say that Socrates
Socrates

Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
 is a token
Type-token distinction

The type-token distinction is between a concept and particular instances of that concept. For example, the bicycle in your garage is a token of the type "bicycle."; the bicycle-token is a "particular" located in time and space but the type-bicycle type is not....
 of a type, or an instance of the natural kind, human being. But notice that we say instead that Socrates is a member of the class of human beings. We would not say that Socrates is a "member" of the type or kind, human beings. Nor would we say he is a type (or kind) of a class. He is a token (instance) of the type (kind). So the linguistic difference is: types (or kinds) have tokens (or instances); classes, on the other hand, have members.

Similarity between the concept of a class, and that of a set defined by its members. Here the class is extensional. If, however, a set is defined intensionally, then it is a set of things that meet some requirement to be a member. Thus such a set can be seen as creating a type. Note that it also creates a class from the extension of the intensional set. A type always has a similar class, but a class does not always have a corresponding type.

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