Generics are noun phrases (NPs) and sentences of certain types; the phenomena exhibited by these NPs and sentences are known as "genericity." Two rather different phenomena are embraced by this term, and they both are of interest to philosophers.

The First Phenomenon: Reference to a Genus (Or Kind)

An example of the first phenomenon, reference to a genus, is the sentence The black-capped chickadee winters in central Alberta, which refers to the genus, or kind, The Black-Capped Chickadee. The sentence may also do other things, such as make claims concerning individual black-capped chickadees and the things they do. But the way it accomplishes these other tasks is to employ its NP subject term to refer to the kind and then make a predication about this kind. There are various tests that one might employ to show that NPs like this really do refer to kinds. For instance, note...