Armstrong and the modal inversion of dispositions

Philosophical Quarterly 55 (220):452–461 (2005)
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Abstract

D. M. Armstrong has objected that the Dispositionalist theory of laws and properties is modally inverted, for it entails that properties are constituted by relations to non-actual possibilia. I contend that, if this objection succeeds against Dispositionalism, then Armstrong's nomic necessitation relation is also modally inverted. This shows that at least one of Armstrong's reasons for preferring a nomic necessitation theory is specious.

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Toby Handfield
Monash University

Citations of this work

Laws of nature.John W. Carroll - 1994 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
Essence and the inference problem.Ashley Coates - 2021 - Synthese 198 (2):915-931.
Dispositions.Michael Fara - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

New work for a theory of universals.David K. Lewis - 1983 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 61 (4):343-377.
Laws of nature.Fred I. Dretske - 1977 - Philosophy of Science 44 (2):248-268.
Finkish dispositions.David Kellogg Lewis - 1997 - Philosophical Quarterly 47 (187):143-158.
The nature of laws.Michael Tooley - 1977 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7 (4):667-98.
Dispositions and antidotes.Alexander Bird - 1998 - Philosophical Quarterly 48 (191):227-234.

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