Works by Vassilis Livanios

71

No Laws and (Thin) Powers in, No (Governing) Laws Out.Stavros Ioannidis, Vassilis Livanios & Stathis Psillos - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1):1-26.

Non-Humean accounts of the metaphysics of nature posit either laws or powers in order to account for natural necessity and world-order. We argue that such monistic views face fundamental problems. On the one hand, neo-Aristotelians cannot give unproblematic power-based accounts of the functional laws among quantities offered by physical theories, as well as of the place of conservation laws and symmetries in a lawless ontology; in order to capture these characteristics, commitment to governing laws is indispensable. On the other hand, (...)

Dispositions and Laws in Metaphysics

Humeanism and Nonhumeanism about Laws in General Philosophy of Science

Nomological Necessity in Metaphysics

Philosophy of Physical Science, Miscellaneous in Philosophy of Physical Science

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14

Powerful Qualities Beyond Identity Theory.Vassilis Livanios - 2020 - Metaphysica 21 (2):279-295.

Until recently, the powerful qualities view about properties has been effectively identified with the so-called identity theory. Yet, the difficulties that the latter faces have led some metaphysicians to propose new versions of the powerful qualities view. This paper discusses the prospects of three such versions: the compound view, the higher-order properties theory and the dual aspect account. It is argued that the compound view is in fact property dualism in disguise, while the higher-order properties theory does not by itself (...)

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

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3 citations

18

Dispositional Monism and the Ontological Distinction Between Unmanifested and Manifested Powers.Vassilis Livanios - 2021 - Ratio 34 (2):89-99.

The vast majority of metaphysicians agree that powers (in contrast to categorical properties) can exist unmanifested. This paper focuses on the ontological distinction between unmanifested and manifested powers underpinning that fact and has two main aims. First, to determine the proper relata of the distinction and second, to show that an unrestricted version of dispositional monism faces serious difficulties to accommodate it. As far as the first aim is concerned, it is argued that the distinction in question, in order to (...)

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

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41

Do Categorical Properties Confer Dispositions on Their Bearers?Vassilis Livanios - 2018 - Kriterion - Journal of Philosophy 32 (2):61-82.

Categorical Monism (that is, the view that all fundamental natural properties are purely categorical) has recently been challenged by a number of philosophers. In this paper, I examine a challenge which can be based on Gabriele Contessa’s [10] defence of the view that only powers can confer dispositions. In his paper Contessa argues against what he calls the Nomic Theory of Disposition Conferral (NTDC). According to NTDC, in each world in which they exist, (categorical) properties confer specific dispositions on their (...)

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Laws in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

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2 citations

38

Hamilton’s Principle and Dispositional Essentialism: Friends or Foes?Vassilis Livanios - 2018 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 49 (1):59-71.

Most recently Smart and Thébault revived an almost forgotten debate between Katzav and Ellis on the compatibility of Hamilton’s Principle with Dispositional Essentialism. Katzav’s arguments inter alia aim to show that HP presupposes a kind of metaphysical contingency which is at odds with the basic tenets of DE, and offers explanations of a different type and direction from those given by DE. In this paper I argue that though dispositional essentialists might adequately respond to these arguments, the question about the (...)

Dispositions and Laws in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Metaphysics, Misc in Metaphysics

Scientific Essentialism in Metaphysics

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2 citations

30

Dispositionality and Symmetry Structures.Vassilis Livanios - 2018 - Metaphysica 19 (2):201-217.

A number of metaphysicians and philosophers of science have raised the issue of the modality of the fundamental structures of the world. Although the debate so far has been largely focused on the inherent causal character of fundamental structures, one aspect of it has naturally taken its place as part of the dispositional/categorical debate. In this paper, I focus on the latter in the case of the fundamental symmetry structures. After putting forward the necessary metaphysical presuppositions for the debate to (...)

Metaphysics and Epistemology

Powers in Metaphysics

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14

Causal Necessitation and Dispositional Modality.Stavros Ioannidis, Vassilis Livanios & Stathis Psillos - 2020 - Philosophia 49 (1):289-298.

Rani Lill Anjum and Stephen Mumford have recently defended a new kind of modality, which they call ‘dispositional modality’. The key reason to adopt dispositional modality, according to them, is that causes never necessitate their effects. Anjum and Mumford’s chief argument against causal necessitation makes use of what they call the ‘antecedent-strengthening test’ : C causally necessitates E iff C & φ causes E, for any possible φ. This test, they claim, fails in all cases of alleged causal necessitation. In (...)

Theories of Causation, Misc in Metaphysics

Theories of Modality, Misc in Metaphysics

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24

Beyond Platonism and Nominalism?: James Franklin: An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematics as the Science of Quantity and Structure, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, X + 308 Pp. [REVIEW]Vassilis Livanios - 2016 - Axiomathes 26 (1):63-69.

Review of James Franklin: An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematics as the Science of Quantity and Structure, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, x + 308 pp.

Mathematical Nominalism in Philosophy of Mathematics

Mathematical Platonism in Philosophy of Mathematics

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22

Challenging the Identity Theory of Properties.Vassilis Livanios - forthcoming - Synthese.

The Identity Theory of properties is an increasingly popular metaphysical view that aims to be a middle way between pure powerism and pure categoricalism. This paper’s goal is to highlight three major difficulties that IDT should address in order to be a plausible account of the nature of properties. First, although IDT needs a clear definition of the notion of qualitativity which is both adequate and compatible with the tenets of the theory, all the extant proposals fail to provide such (...)

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

Properties, Misc in Metaphysics

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1

Challenging the identity theory of properties.Vassilis Livanios - forthcoming - Synthese:1-27.

The Identity Theory of properties is an increasingly popular metaphysical view that aims to be a middle way between pure powerism and pure categoricalism. This paper’s goal is to highlight three major difficulties that IDT should address in order to be a plausible account of the nature of properties. First, although IDT needs a clear definition of the notion of qualitativity which is both adequate and compatible with the tenets of the theory, all the extant proposals fail to provide such (...)

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25

Dispositional Pluralism. [REVIEW]Vassilis Livanios - 2020 - Philosophical Quarterly 70 (281):881-883.

Dispositional Pluralism. By McKitrick Jennifer.

Conditional Analyses in Metaphysics

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Bases in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

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35

Intrinsic Dispositional Properties and Immanent Realism.Vassilis Livanios - 2018 - Grazer Philosophische Studien 95 (4):500-519.

_ Source: _Page Count 20 Tugby and Yates have recently argued that immanent realism is incompatible with the existence of intrinsic but relationally constituted genuine dispositional properties. The success of Tugby’s and Yates’ arguments depends either on a strong or on a weak assumption about the interworld identity of dispositional properties. In this paper, the author evaluates the strength of the arguments in question under those two assumptions. He also offers an alternative metaphysical picture for the fundamental dispositional properties which (...)

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

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1

Manifestation and Unrestricted Dispositional Monism.Vassilis Livanios - forthcoming - Acta Analytica:1-18.

Most metaphysicians agree that powers can exist without being manifested. The main goal of this paper is to show that adherents of an unrestricted version of Dispositional Monism cannot provide a plausible metaphysical account of the difference between a situation in which a power-instance is not manifested and a situation in which a manifestation of that power-instance actually occurs unless they undermine their own view. To this end, two kinds of manifestation-relation are introduced and it is argued that dispositional monists (...)

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23

Soft Selling a Powers-Friendly Ontology: N. E. Williams: The Powers Metaphysic. Oxford: OUP, 2019, 266 Pp, £55.00 HB. [REVIEW]Vassilis Livanios - 2020 - Metascience 29 (2):341-344.

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Laws in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

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40

The Categorical-Dispositional Distinction, Locations and Symmetry Operations.Vassilis Livanios - 2017 - Acta Analytica 32 (2):133-144.

In his book Powers (2003), George Molnar argues against Dispositional Monism by presenting a posteriori reasons to believe in the existence of actual categorical features. In this paper I argue that either Molnar’s project is misdirected, since the properties he concentrates on are most possibly irrelevant for the debate between Dispositional Monism and Property Dualism, or, granted that the properties he chooses are indeed relevant, his arguments cannot prove that they are categorical without begging the question against Dispositional Monism.

Dispositional and Categorical Properties in Metaphysics

Dispositions and Powers, Misc in Metaphysics

Powers in Metaphysics

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The far-reaching impact of dispositionalism?Vassilis Livanios - forthcoming - Metascience:1-4.

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41

Vikingism as a Metametaphysical Thesis.Vassilis Livanios - 2019 - Metaphilosophy 50 (4):516-535.

Methodology in Metaphysics in Metaphysics

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Applied ethics	Epistemology	History of Western Philosophy	Meta-ethics	Metaphysics	Normative ethics
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