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Full Idea
It is no surprise that talk of dispositions, capacities, abilities, tendencies, powers, and potentialities are part of our everyday interactions. …I have in mind a basic set of powers, the sort which underlie all of these.
Gist of Idea
There are basic powers, which underlie dispositions, potentialities, capacities etc
Source
Neil E. Williams (The Powers Metaphysics [2019], 03.1)
Book Ref
Williams,Neil E.: 'The Powers Metaphysics' [OUP 2019], p.47
A Reaction
This strikes me as the correct picture. It is misleading say that a ball has a 'power' to roll smoothly. The powers are inside the ball.
| 12941 | There cannot be power without action; the power is a disposition to act [Leibniz] |
| 12312 | The real essence of a thing is its powers, or 'dispositional properties' [Copi] |
| 12686 | Causal powers are a proper subset of the dispositional properties [Ellis] |
| 13596 | A causal power is a disposition to produce forces [Ellis] |
| 13599 | Powers are dispositions of the essences of kinds that involve them in causation [Ellis] |
| 8548 | Dispositional predicates ascribe powers, and the rest ascribe properties [Shoemaker] |
| 11939 | If powers only exist when actual, they seem to be nomadic, and indistinguishable from non-powers [Molnar] |
| 14314 | If dispositions are powers, background conditions makes it hard to say what they do [Mumford] |
| 14325 | Maybe dispositions can replace powers in metaphysics, as what induces property change [Mumford] |
| 23774 | There are basic powers, which underlie dispositions, potentialities, capacities etc [Williams,NE] |
| 23791 | Dispositions are just useful descriptions, which are explained by underlying powers [Williams,NE] |
| 14536 | We say 'power' and 'disposition' are equivalent, but some say dispositions are manifestable [Mumford/Anjum] |
| 16738 | Scholastics reject dispositions, because they are not actual, as forms require [Pasnau] |