Powers and Properties

In Robert C. Koons & Timothy Pickavance (eds.), The atlas of reality: a comprehensive guide to metaphysics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 106–122 (2017)
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Abstract

Laws of nature are merely expressions of the powers possessed by various kinds of things, and counterfactual conditionals are grounded in the powers and tendencies of the entities involved in the counterfactual supposition together with their counterfactual surroundings. There are two versions of Strong Powerism. One takes the truthmakers for causal laws to be universals (a 'Realist' version). The second takes the truthmakers for causal laws to be the particulars that fall under the laws (a 'Nominalist' version). This chapter focuses on how Powerism compares to other views about the laws. Neo‐Humeism has the leanest metaphysical theory, since its class of fundamental truths includes no conditionals, laws of nature or attributions of power. Metaphysically, Nomism is burdened with a large number of brute necessities, linking laws with actual patterns of particular fact. The chapter talks about the causal theory of properties: causal structuralism.

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Timothy Pickavance
Biola University
Robert Charles Koons
University of Texas at Austin

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