Dispositions

Synthese 144 (3):343-356 (2005)
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Abstract

Appeals to dispositionality in explanations of phenomena in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, require that we first agree on what we are talking about. I sketch an account of what dispositionality might be. That account will place me at odds with most current conceptions of dispositionality. My aim is not to establish a weighty ontological thesis, however, but to move the discussion ahead in two respects. First, I want to call attention to the extent to which assumptions philosophers have made about dispositionality are far from innocent. The assumptions incorporate substantive theses that, by constraining the space of acceptable answers to particular philosophical questions, have inhibited the search for answers to those questions. Second, and more positively, I hope to open up the space of possibilities by offering an alternative way of conceiving dispositionality developed by C. B. Martin

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John Heil
Washington University in St. Louis

Citations of this work

Making sense of powerful qualities.Ashley Coates - 2021 - Synthese 198 (9):8347-8363.
Dispositions.Sungho Choi - 2021 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Powerful qualities and pure powers.Henry Taylor - 2018 - Philosophical Studies 175 (6):1423-1440.
The Powerlessness of Necessity.Markus Schrenk - 2010 - Noûs 44 (4):725-739.

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References found in this work

Nature's capacities and their measurement.Nancy Cartwright - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science.Nancy Cartwright - 1999 - New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Supervenience and mind: selected philosophical essays.Jaegwon Kim - 1993 - New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.
From an ontological point of view.John Heil - 2003 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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