more from Sydney Shoemaker

Single Idea 8548

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

Full Idea

By and large, dispositional predicates ascribe powers while nondispositional monadic predicates ascribe properties that are not powers in the same sense.

Gist of Idea

Dispositional predicates ascribe powers, and the rest ascribe properties

Source

Sydney Shoemaker (Causality and Properties [1980], §03)

Book Reference

Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.211


A Reaction

The powers are where the properties come into contact with the rest of the world, so you would expect dispositions to be found at that level, rather than at the deeper level of properties. Sounds good to me.