Dispositions and Powers

Abstract

As we understand them, dispositions are relatively uncontroversial 'predicatory' properties had by objects disposed in certain ways. By contrast, powers are hypothetical 'ontic' properties posited in order to explain dispositional behaviour. Chapter 1 outlines this distinction in more detail. Chapter 2 offers a summary of the issues surrounding analysis of dispositions and various strategies in contemporary literature to address them, including one of our own. Chapter 3 describes some of the important questions facing the metaphysics of powers including why they're worth positing, and how they might metaphysically explain laws of nature and modality.

The applicability of the concept of the field of rationality in the explanation of the fundamental role of symmetries in physics

“…It turns out the the issue of potentiality is one of the central ones in contemporary metaphysics and it concerns the ongoing discussion on the nature of powers and dispositions and these concepts are used into the explanation of what the laws of nature are (e.g., Friend and Kimpton-Nye, 2023). In most general terms, to attribute a disposition to a thing means that if certain conditions are fulfilled, then that thing will behave in a certain way, or produce a certain effect-that is, that a certain outcome will occur.…”