Dispositions, conditionals and auspicious circumstances

Philosophical Studies 164 (2):443-464 (2013)
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Abstract

A number of authors have suggested that a conditional analysis of dispositions must take roughly the following form: Thing X is disposed to produce response R to stimulus S just in case, if X were exposed to S and surrounding circumstances were auspicious, then X would produce R. The great challenge is cashing out the relevant notion of ‘auspicious circumstances’. I give a general argument which entails that all existing conditional analyses fail, and that there is no satisfactory way to define ‘auspicious circumstances’ just in terms of S, R, and X. Instead, I argue that the auspicious circumstances C for the manifestation of a disposition constitute a third irreducible element of that disposition, and that to pick out (or to ‘individuate’) that disposition one must specify C along with S and R. This enables a new conditional analysis of dispositions that gives intuitively satisfying answers in cases that pose problems for other approaches

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Justin Fisher
Southern Methodist University

Citations of this work

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Powers opposed and intrinsic finks.Simon Kittle - 2015 - Philosophical Quarterly 65 (260):372-380.
Reasons-responsiveness, modality and rational blind spots.Heering David - 2022 - Philosophical Studies 180 (1):293-316.
Masks, Finks, and Gender.Gus Turyn - forthcoming - Erkenntnis:1-34.

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References found in this work

Naming and Necessity: Lectures Given to the Princeton University Philosophy Colloquium.Saul A. Kripke - 1980 - Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Edited by Darragh Byrne & Max Kölbel.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Counterfactuals.David K. Lewis - 1973 - Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.

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