Full Idea
To be is to have causal powers.
Gist of Idea
To be is to have causal powers
Source
Samuel Alexander (works [1927], §4), quoted by Jaegwon Kim - Nonreductivist troubles with ment.causation
Book Reference
Kim,Jaegwon: 'Supervenience and Mind' [CUP 1993], p.348
A Reaction
This is sometimes called Alexander's Principle. It is first found in Plato, and is popular with physicalists, but there are problem cases... A thing needs to exist in order to have causal powers. To exist is more than to be perceived.
Related Ideas
Idea 7022 To be is to have a capacity, to act on other things, or to receive actions [Plato]
Idea 4215 It seems proper to say that only substances (rather than events) have causal powers [Lowe]
Idea 4237 Concrete and abstract objects are distinct because the former have causal powers and relations [Lowe]
Idea 12447 That all existents have causal powers is unknowable; the claim is simply an epistemic one [Azzouni]
Idea 14562 A process is unified as an expression of a collection of causal powers [Mumford/Anjum]
Idea 18398 Space, time, and some other basics, are not causal powers [Ellis]