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Single Idea 9474

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 6. Dispositions / c. Dispositions as conditional ]

Full Idea

Finkish dispositions arise because the time delay between stimulus and manifestation provides an opportunity for the disposition to go out of existence and so halt the process that would bring about the manifestation.

Clarification

A 'fink' in a factory is paid to dissuade the workers from striking

Gist of Idea

A disposition is finkish if a time delay might mean the manifestation fizzles out

Source

Alexander Bird (Nature's Metaphysics [2007], 2.2.3)

Book Ref

Bird,Alexander: 'Nature's Metaphysics' [OUP 2007], p.25

A Reaction

This is a problem for the conditional analysis of dispositions; there may be a disposition, but it never reaches manifestation. Bird rightly points us towards actual powers rather than dispositions that need manifestation.

The 12 ideas with the same theme [dispositions understood as hypothetical behaviour]:

15466 'The wire is live' can't be analysed as a conditional, because a wire can change its powers [Martin,CB]
15467 Powers depend on circumstances, so can't be given a conditional analysis [Martin,CB]
15461 A 'finkish' disposition is real, but disappears when the stimulus occurs [Lewis]
12613 Empiricists use dispositions reductively, as 'possibility of sensation' or 'possibility of experimental result' [Fodor]
14312 Orthodoxy says dispositions entail conditionals (rather than being equivalent to them) [Mumford]
14416 An object can have a disposition when the revelant conditional is false [Merricks]
9474 A disposition is finkish if a time delay might mean the manifestation fizzles out [Bird]
9475 A robust pot attached to a sensitive bomb is not fragile, but if struck it will easily break [Bird]
14348 An 'antidote' allows a manifestation to begin, but then blocks it [Corry]
14347 A 'finkish' disposition is one that is lost immediately after the appropriate stimulus [Corry]
14584 The simple conditional analysis of dispositions doesn't allow for possible prevention [Mumford/Anjum]
19016 We should think of dispositions as 'to do' something, not as 'to do something, if ....' [Vetter]