Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Machamer,P/Darden,L/Craver,C, Sebastian Gardner and John Charvet

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8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 2. Powers as Basic

16556	Penicillin causes nothing; the cause is what penicillin does [Machamer/Darden/Craver]
	Full Idea: It is not the penicillin that causes the pneumonia to disappear, but what the penicillin does.
	From: Machamer,P/Darden,L/Craver,C (Thinking About Mechanisms [2000], 3.1)
	A reaction: This is a very neat example for illustrating how we slip into 'entity' talk, when the reality we are addressing actually concerns processes. Without the 'what it does', penicillin can't participate in causation at all.