Editors:
- A unique handbook covering an as yet unexplored philosophical investigation
- Enriches the wide and fruitful debate about dispositions' profits
- A must-read, since the argument from the potential is one of the most important arguments in bioethics
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Table of contents (16 chapters)
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Front Matter
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The Concept of Potentiality in the History of Philosophy—Aristotle
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Front Matter
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The Concept of Potentiality in the History of Philosophy—Medieval Philosophy
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Front Matter
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The Concept of Potentiality in the History of Philosophy—Early Modern Philosophy
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Front Matter
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The Metaphysics of Potentials
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Front Matter
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Potentiality in Specific Fields of Philosophy
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Front Matter
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Potentiality in the Sciences
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Front Matter
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About this book
This volume congregates articles of leading philosophers about potentials and potentiality in all areas of philosophy and the empirical sciences in which they play a relevant role. It is the first encompassing collection of articles on the metaphysics of potentials and potentiality.
Potentials play an important role not only in our everyday understanding of objects, persons and systems but also in the sciences. An example is the potential to become an adult human person. Moreover, the attribution of potentials involves crucial ethical problems. Bioethics makes references to the theoretical concept "potential" without being able to clarify its meaning. However, despite its relevance it has not been made subject of philosophical investigation. Mostly, potentials are regarded as a subspecies of dispositions. Whilst dispositions are a flourishing field of research, potentials as such have not come into focus. Potentials like dispositions are modal properties. But already a first glance at the metaphysics of potentials shows that concerning their ascription potentials are more problematic than dispositions since "potential" means that an entity has the potential to acquire a property in the future. Therefore, potentials involve a time structure of the entities in question that is much more complex than those of dispositions.
This handbook brings this important concept into focus in its various aspects for the first time. It covers the history of the concept as well as contemporary systematic problems and will be of special interest for philosophers in the fields of general metaphysics, philosophy of science and ethics, especially bioethics. It will also be of interest to scientists and persons concerned with bioethical problems.
Editors and Affiliations
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Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
Kristina Engelhard
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Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany
Michael Quante
About the editors
Michael Quante is Professor for Practical Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universityof Münster, Germany. His research areas are action theory, philosophy of person, ethics and applied ethics. His most important publications are ”Hegel's Concept of Action“ (Cambridge University Press 2004), “Person“ (de Gruyter 2012); ”Personal Identity as a Principle of Biomedical Ethics“ (Springer 2016).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Handbook of Potentiality
Editors: Kristina Engelhard, Michael Quante
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1287-1
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-024-1285-7Published: 27 April 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-024-1642-8Published: 29 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-94-024-1287-1Published: 18 April 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 433
Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations
Topics: Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy, Theory of Medicine/Bioethics, Ethics, Metaphysics