Single Idea 16738

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 6. Dispositions / b. Dispositions and powers]

Full Idea

Scholastics reject anything like bare dispositions, on Aristotelian principles. Powers are forms, and forms actualise their subject, and are causally efficacious. Therefore no powers can be bare dispositions.

Gist of Idea

Scholastics reject dispositions, because they are not actual, as forms require

Source

Robert Pasnau (Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 [2011], 23.5)

Book Reference

Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.535


A Reaction

The point seems to be that a mere disposition is not actual, as a form is required to be. I would have thought that a power does not have to be operational to be actual. A live electric wire is a real phenomenon. It isn't waiting to be live.