 On Searle’s view, a particular gathering of persons can be a cocktail party only with the conceptual and social recognition of those gathered. A similar idea has been influential in constructionist discussions. For example, the provocative claims that there were no homosexuals before the concept homosexual came to be expressed in Western culture in the nineteenth century (e.g. Foucault 1978, Halperin 1990) or that race is a modern invention (e.g Taylor 2004) seem to make sense if we see sexual or racial kinds as in part constituted by our concepts of them.