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Accepted manuscript

WHAT IS IT ABOUT VITAMINS? - VITAMINS AS INVESTIGATIVE KINDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2025

Francesca Bellazzi*
Affiliation:
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, Assistant Professor Department of Philosophy, Durham University (UK) Department of Philosophy 50 Old Elvet, DH1 3HN Durham (UK)
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Abstract

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Vitamins are important scientific categories in different contexts. This paper argues that vitamins are investigative kinds in middle-range ontologies: categories subject to open-ended investigation and that track features of the world. Section 2 presents the history of vitamin discovery to illustrate how the introduction of the “vitamin” category and subsequent research led to the identification of many different vitamins. Section 3 explores whether vitamins can be considered natural or conventional kinds. Section 4 argues that vitamins are investigative kinds. Section 5 considers the ontology of vitamins as investigative kinds in a middle-range ontology.

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Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Science Association