Download or read book Dispositions and Causal Powers written by Max Kistler and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dispositions are everywhere. We say that a wall is hard, that water quenches thirst and is transparent, that dogs can swim and oak trees can let their leaves fall, and that acid has the power to corrode metals. All these statements express attributions of dispositions, be they physical, physiological or psychological, yet there is much philosophical debate about how far, if at all, dispositional predicates can have complete meaning or figure in causal explanations. This collection of essays, by leading international researchers, examine the case for realism with respect to dispositions and causal powers in both metaphysics and science. Among the issues debated in this book is whether dispositions can be analyzed in terms of conditionals, whether all dispositions have a so-called categorical basis and, if they do, what is the relation between the disposition and its basis.
Download or read book A Companion to the Philosophy of Science written by W. H. Newton-Smith and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2001-10-08 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unmatched in the quality of its world-renowned contributors, this companion serves as both a course text and a reference book across the broad spectrum of issues of concern to the philosophy of science.
Download or read book Powers written by George Molnar and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2006-11-30 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Molnar came to see that the solution to a number of the problems of contemporary philosophy lay in the development of an alternative to Hume's metaphysics. This alternative would have real causal powers at its centre. Molnar set about developing a thorough account of powers that might persuade those who remained, perhaps unknowingly, in the grip of Humean assumptions. He succeeded in producing something both highly focused and at the same time wide-ranging. He showed both that the notion of a power was central and that it could serve to dispel a number of long-standing philosophical problems. Molnar's account of powers is as realist as any that has so far appeared. He shows that dispositions are as real as any other properties. Specifically, they do not depend for their existence on their manifestations. Nevertheless, they are directed towards such manifestations. Molnar thus appropriates the notion of intentionality, from Brentano, and argues that it is the essential characteristic of powers. He offers a persuasive case for there being some basic and ungrounded powers, thus ruling out the reducibility of the dispositional to the non-dispositional. However, he does allow that there are non-power properties as well as power properties. In this respect, his final position is dualistic. This is contemporary metaphysics of the highest quality. It is a work that was almost complete when its author died. It has been edited for publication by another specialist in the subject, Stephen Mumford, who has also provided an introduction that will allow non-specialists to become acquainted with the issues. David Armstrong, one of the greatest living metaphysicians and personal friend of George Molnar, has provided a Foreword.
Download or read book Dispositions and Powers written by Toby Friend and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-30 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As we understand them, dispositions are relatively uncontroversial 'predicatory' properties had by objects disposed in certain ways. By contrast, powers are hypothetical 'ontic' properties posited in order to explain dispositional behaviour. Chapter 1 outlines this distinction in more detail. Chapter 2 offers a summary of the issues surrounding analysis of dispositions and various strategies in contemporary literature to address them, including one of our own. Chapter 3 describes some of the important questions facing the metaphysics of powers including why they're worth positing, and how they might metaphysically explain laws of nature and modality.
Download or read book Dispositionalism written by Anne Sophie Meincke and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-04-08 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to dispositional realism, or dispositionalism, the entities inhabiting our world possess irreducibly dispositional properties – often called ‘powers’ – by means of which they are sources of change. Dispositionalism has become increasingly popular among metaphysicians in the last three decades as it offers a realist account of causation and provides novel avenues for understanding modality, laws of nature, agency, free will and other key concepts in metaphysics. At the same time, it is receiving growing interest among philosophers of science. This reflects the substantial role scientific findings play in arguments for dispositionalism which, as a metaphysics of science, aims to unveil the very foundations of science. The present collection of essays brings together both strands of interest. It elucidates the ontological profile of dispositionalism by exploring its ontological commitments, and it discusses these from the perspective of the philosophy of science. The essays are written by both proponents of dispositionalism and sceptics so as to initiate an open-minded, constructive dialogue.
Download or read book The Metaphysics of Powers written by Anna Marmodoro and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of papers that advance our understanding of the metaphysics of powers — properties such as fragility and electric charge. The metaphysics of powers is a fast developing research field with fundamental questions at the forefront of current research, such as Can there be a world of only powers? What is the manifestation of a power? Are powers and their manifestations related by necessity? What are the prospects for dispositional accounts of causation? The papers focus on questions concerning the metaphysics of powers that cut across any particular subject-specific ontological domain -- whether philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, ethics, epistemology – investigating the metaphysical structure of powers, the nature of the manifestation of powers, the necessity or contingency of a power’s relation to its manifestations, and powers and causation. A number of authors also engage in discussion with Humean and neo-Humean treatments of causation, thereby making contributions to a larger metaphysical debate beyond powers. Additionally, the authors engage critically with the latest contributions to the debate on powers in the literature, thereby bringing together in a wholesome and analytical way the most recent and noteworthy theoretical developments in this research field.
Download or read book Power and Influence written by Richard Corry and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is a complex place, and this complexity is an obstacle to our attempts to explain, predict, and control it. In Power and Influence, Richard Corry investigates the assumptions that are built into the reductive method of explanation - the method whereby we study the components of acomplex system in relative isolation and use the information so gained to explain or predict the behaviour of the complex whole. He investigates the metaphysical presuppositions built into the reductive method, seeking to ascertain what the world must be like in order that the method could work.Corry argues that the method assumes the existence of causal powers that manifest causal influence- - a relatively unrecognised ontological category, of which forces are a paradigm example. The success of the reductive method, therefore, is an argument for the existence of such causal influences.The book goes on to show that adding causal influence to our ontology gives us the resources to solve some traditional problems in the metaphysics of causal powers, laws of nature, causation, emergence, and possibly even normative ethics. What results, then, is not just an understanding of thereductive method, but an integrated metaphysical worldview that is grounded in an ontology of power and influence.
Download or read book Dispositions and Causal Powers written by Bruno Gnassounou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dispositions are everywhere. We say that a wall is hard, that water quenches thirst and is transparent, that dogs can swim and oak trees can let their leaves fall, and that acid has the power to corrode metals. All these statements express attributions of dispositions, be they physical, physiological or psychological, yet there is much philosophical debate about how far, if at all, dispositional predicates can have complete meaning or figure in causal explanations. This collection of essays, by leading international researchers, examine the case for realism with respect to dispositions and causal powers in both metaphysics and science. Among the issues debated in this book is whether dispositions can be analyzed in terms of conditionals, whether all dispositions have a so-called categorical basis and, if they do, what is the relation between the disposition and its basis.
Download or read book Dispositions and Causal Powers written by Bruno Gnassounou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dispositions are everywhere. We say that a wall is hard, that water quenches thirst and is transparent, that dogs can swim and oak trees can let their leaves fall, and that acid has the power to corrode metals. All these statements express attributions of dispositions, be they physical, physiological or psychological, yet there is much philosophical debate about how far, if at all, dispositional predicates can have complete meaning or figure in causal explanations. This collection of essays, by leading international researchers, examine the case for realism with respect to dispositions and causal powers in both metaphysics and science. Among the issues debated in this book is whether dispositions can be analyzed in terms of conditionals, whether all dispositions have a so-called categorical basis and, if they do, what is the relation between the disposition and its basis.
Download or read book The Powers Metaphysic written by Neil E. Williams and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Systematic metaphysics is defined by its task of solving metaphysical problems through the repeated application of single, fundamental ontology. The dominant contemporary metaphysic is that of neo-Humeanism, built on a static ontology typified by its rejection of basic causal and modalfeatures. This book offers a radically distinct metaphysic, one that turns the status quo on its head. Starting with a foundational ontology of inherently causal properties known as "powers", Neil E. Williams develops a metaphysic that appeals to powers in explanations of causation, persistence,laws, and modality. Powers are properties that have their causal natures internal to them: they are responsible for the effects in the world. A unique account of powers is advanced, one that understands this internal nature in terms of blueprint of potential interaction types. After the presentationof the powers ontology, Williams offers solutions to broad metaphysical puzzles, some of which take on different forms in light of the new tools that are available. The defence of the ontology comes from the virtues of metaphysic it can be used to develop. Particular attention is paid to theproblems of causation and persistence, simultaneously solving them as is casts them in a new light. The resultant powers metaphysic is offered as a systematic alternative to neo-Humeanism.
Download or read book Powers and Capacities in Philosophy written by Ruth Groff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in 2012, Powers and Capacities in Philosophy is a valuable contribution to the field of Philosophy.
Download or read book What Tends to Be written by Rani Lill Anjum and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People tend to enjoy listening to music or watching television, sleeping at night and celebrating birthdays. Plants tend to grow and thrive in sunlight and mild temperatures. We also know that tendencies are not perfectly regular and that there are patterns in the natural world, which are reliable to a degree, but not absolute. What should we make of a world where things tend to be one way but could be another? Is there a position between necessity and possibility? If there is, what are the implications for science, knowledge and ethics? This book explores these questions and is the first full-length treatment of the philosophy of tendencies. Anjum and Mumford argue that although the philosophical language of tendencies has been around since Aristotle, there has not been any serious commitment to the irreducible modality that they involve. They also argue that the acceptance of an irreducible and sui generis tendential modality ought to be the fundamental commitment of any genuine realism about dispositions or powers. It is the dispositional modality that makes dispositions authentically disposition-like. Armed with this theory the authors apply it to a variety of key philosophical topics such as chance, causation, epistemology and free will.
Download or read book Dispositional Pluralism written by Jennifer McKitrick and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jennifer McKitrick offers an opinionated guide to the philosophy of dispositions. In her view, when an object has a disposition, it is such that, if a certain type of circumstance were to occur, a certain kind of event would occur. Since it is very common for this to be the case for a variety of reasons, dispositions are very abundant and diverse. They include such varied properties as character traits like a hero's courage, characteristics of physical objects like a wine glass's fragility, and characteristics of microphysical entities like an electron's charge. Some dispositions are natural while others are non-natural. Some dispositions called powers are ungrounded while non-fundamental dispositions are grounded in other properties. Some dispositions manifest constantly, some of them manifest spontaneously, while others manifest only when they are triggered to do so. Some dispositions manifest by causing another dispositional property to be instantiated, while others have manifestations that involve non-dispositional properties and relations. Some dispositions are intrinsic to their bearers while others are extrinsic. Some of them are causally relevant to their manifestations while others are not. Some dispositions manifest in some particular way in particular circumstances, while other dispositions manifest in various ways in various circumstances. What makes all of these diverse properties dispositions is their connection to a certain kind of counterfactual fact. Nevertheless, disposition ascriptions are not semantically reducible to counterfactual claims.
Download or read book Dispositions and Causes written by Toby Handfield and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-02-05 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, the analysis of causal relations has become a topic of central importance in analytic philosophy. More recently, dispositional properties have also become objects of intense study. Both of these phenomena appear to be intimately related to counterfactual conditionals and other modal phenomena such as objective chance, but little work has been done to directly relate them. Dispositions and Causes contains ten essays by scholars working in both metaphysics and in philosophy of science, examining the relation between dispositional and causal concepts. Particular issues discussed include the possibility of reducing dispositions to causes, and vice versa; the possibility of a nominalist theory of causal powers; the attempt to reduce all metaphysical necessity to dispositional properties; the relationship between dispositions, causes, and laws of nature; the role of causal capacities in explaining the success of scientific inquiry; the grounding of dispositions and causes in objective chances; and the type of causal power required for free agency. The introductory chapter contains a detailed overview of recent work in the area, providing a helpful entry to the literature for non-specialists.
Download or read book Powers written by Julia Jorati and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume examines some of the main twists and turns in the fascinating history of the philosophical concept of powers or dispositions. It focuses on what one might call the metaphysical sense of 'powers'-that is, the powers that are invoked in the explanation of natural changes and activities. The volume's chapters discuss, among others, the philosophical views of Anaxagoras, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Plotinus, Ibn Gabirol, Avicenna, Abelard, Anselm, Henry of Ghent, John Duns Scotus, René Descartes, Nicolas Malebranche, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Margaret Cavendish, Ralph Cudworth, Henry More, John Locke, David Hume, Thomas Reid, Mary Shepherd, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, David Lewis, David Armstrong, and George Molnar. In addition, the volume contains four short reflection essays that examine the concept of powers from the perspective of disciplines other than philosophy, namely, history of music, West African religions, history of chemistry, and history of art"--
Download or read book A Critical Introduction to Causal Powers and Dispositions written by Ruth Groff and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 2025-05-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Critical Introduction to Causation and Causal Powers responds to a groundswell of interest in the topic of causal powers in contemporary metaphysics, presenting a fresh systematic overview of the realist literature,debates and arguments. Introducing the topic via the lens of a contrast between passivism and anti-passivism, the contrast is established in the opening historical overview, plotting the course from Aristotle to early modern rationalism, through to Hume, Reid, Kant and Mill. As well as covering contemporary and 20th century neo-Humean accounts, this introduction includes a review of foundational work on causal powers and dispositional properties in the 1970s, taking care to include both a descriptive and an analytic component. Exploring contemporary anti-passivist thinking about causation, it covers leading theories of causation and provides powers-based approaches to matters such as laws, essences, necessitation, determinism, pandispositionalism, transitivity and induction. The ascription of causal powers to different kinds of potential causal bearer is also addressed: individual agents, sociological phenomena; abstractions and absences. Offering a balanced approach to this key metaphysical topic, A Critical Introduction to Causation and Causal Powers not only introduces debates amongst anti-passivists, but explains throughout how the same issues are handled by passivists. With study questions and references for further reading at the end of each chapter, this is an accessible, up-to-date overview designed for students and researchers working in metaphysics today.
Download or read book Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science written by Travis Dumsday and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dispositionalism is the view that causal powers are among the irreducible properties of nature. It has long been among the core competing positions in the metaphysics of laws, but its potential implications for other key debates within metaphysics and the philosophy of science have remained under-explored. Travis Dumsday fills this major gap in the literature by establishing new connections between dispositionalism and such topics as substance ontology, ontic structural realism, material composition, emergentism, natural-kind essentialism, perdurantism, time travel, and spacetime substantivalism. He also puts forward a novel view concerning the precise relationship between causal powers and the fundamental laws of nature. His rich and accessible study will appeal to readers interested in contemporary analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science.
