The metaphysics of powers
Subtitle: their grounding and their manifestations
By: edited by Anna Marmodoro
Series: Routledge studies in metaphysics -- 2
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9780415876858
Description: "This volume is a collection of papers that advance our understanding of the metaphysics of powers - properties such as fragility and electric charge. The metaphysics of powers is a fast developing research field with fundamental questions at the forefront of current research, such as Can there be a world of only powers? What is the manifestation of a power? Are powers and their manifestations related by necessity? What are the prospects for dispositional accounts of causation? The papers focus on questions concerning the metaphysics of powers that cut across any particular subject-specific ontological domain - whether philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, ethics, epistemology - investigating the metaphysical structure of powers, the nature of the manifestation of powers, the necessity or contingency of a power's relation to its manifestations, and powers and causation. A number of authors also engage in discussion with Humean and neo-Humean treatments of causation, thereby making contributions to a larger metaphysical debate beyond powers. Additionally, the authors engage critically with the latest contributions to the debate on powers in the literature, thereby bringing together in a wholesome and analytical way the most recent and noteworthy theoretical developments in this research field."--Pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: On the individuation of powers / E.J. Lowe; title: Do powers need powers to make them powerful?: from pandispositionalism to Aristotle / Anna Marmodoro; title: Categories and the ontology of powers: a vindication of the identity theory of properties / Kristina Engelhard; title: Powerful qualities / John Heil; title: Manifestations as effects / Jennifer McKitrick; title: Puzzling powers: the problem of fit / Neil Williams; title: Dispositions, manifestations, and causal structure / Toby Handfield; title: Causal powers and categorical properties / Brian Ellis; title: A powerful theory of causation / Stephen Mumford and Rani Anjum; title: Causation and the manifestation of powers / Alexander Bird; title: Antidotes for dispositional essentialism / Markus Schrenk.