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Single Idea 7023
[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 3. Powers as Derived
]
Full Idea
The modern default position on dispositionality is that powers or dispositions are higher-level properties objects possess by virtue of those objects' possession of lower-level qualitative (categorical) properties.
Gist of Idea
Powers or dispositions are usually seen as caused by lower-level qualities
Source
John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], 09.2)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'From an Ontological Point of View' [OUP 2005], p.87
A Reaction
The new idea which is being floated by Heil, and which I prefer, is that dispositions or powers are basic. A 'quality' is a much more dubious entity than a power.
The
23 ideas
with the same theme
[powers as products of something more basic]:
16740
|
A power is not a cause, but an aptitude for a cause
[Zabarella]
|
16744
|
All powers can be explained by obvious features like size, shape and motion of matter
[Descartes]
|
16734
|
The complete power of an event is just the aggregate of the qualities that produced it
[Hobbes]
|
15974
|
The essence of whiteness in a man is nothing but the power to produce the idea of whiteness
[Locke]
|
23666
|
It is obvious that there could not be a power without a subject which possesses it
[Reid]
|
14296
|
Dispositions are physical states of mechanism; when known, these replace the old disposition term
[Quine]
|
13568
|
Basic powers may not be explained by structure, if at the bottom level there is no structure
[Ellis]
|
13586
|
Maybe dispositions can be explained by intrinsic properties or structures
[Ellis]
|
15094
|
I now deny that properties are cluster of powers, and take causal properties as basic
[Shoemaker]
|
15758
|
Things have powers in virtue of (which are entailed by) their properties
[Shoemaker]
|
8547
|
One power can come from different properties; a thing's powers come from its properties
[Shoemaker]
|
8549
|
Properties are functions producing powers, and powers are functions producing effects
[Shoemaker]
|
15258
|
Powers are not qualities; they just point to directions of empirical investigation
[Harré/Madden]
|
15554
|
A disposition needs a causal basis, a property in a certain causal role. Could the disposition be the property?
[Lewis]
|
15463
|
All dispositions must have causal bases
[Lewis]
|
15120
|
Lewisian properties have powers because of their relationships to other properties
[Lewis, by Hawthorne]
|
7023
|
Powers or dispositions are usually seen as caused by lower-level qualities
[Heil]
|
14310
|
Dispositions are classifications of properties by functional role
[Mumford]
|
14316
|
If dispositions have several categorical realisations, that makes the two separate
[Mumford]
|
14317
|
I say the categorical base causes the disposition manifestation
[Mumford]
|
9450
|
If all properties are potencies, and stimuli and manifestation characterise them, there is a regress
[Bird]
|
9498
|
The essence of a potency involves relations, e.g. mass, to impressed force and acceleration
[Bird]
|
14557
|
Powers are not just basic forces, since they combine to make new powers
[Mumford/Anjum]
|