Max Bialek (Rutgers University)
It is a standard feature of the BSA and its variants that systematizations of the world competing to be the best must be expressed in the same language. This paper argues that such single language privileging is problematic because (1) it enhances the objection that the BSA is insufficiently objective, and (2) it breaks the parallel between the BSA and scientific practice by not letting laws and basic kinds be identified/discovered together. A solution to these problems and the ones that prompt single language privileging is proposed in the form of privileging the best system competition(s).
