Single Idea 14579

[catalogued under 10. Modality / A. Necessity / 1. Types of Modality]

Full Idea

We think dispositionality is the core modality from which the other two standard modal operators draw their sense as being limiting cases on a spectrum. ...This gives a very this-worldly account of possibility and necessity.

Gist of Idea

Dispositionality is the core modality, with possibility and necessity as its extreme cases

Source

S.Mumford/R.Lill Anjum (Getting Causes from Powers [2011], 8.5)

Book Reference

Anjum,R.J./Mumford,S.: 'Getting Causes from Powers' [OUP 2011], p.182


A Reaction

I'm strongly in favour of this-worldly accounts of modal truths, so I like this. They take dispositions to hover somewhere between what is barely possible and what is absolutely necessary. But is modality actually part of the physical world?

Related Idea

Idea 14580 Dispositions may suggest modality to us - as what might not have been, and what could have been [Mumford/Anjum]