Causal powers /
Causal powers are ubiquitous. Electrons are negatively charged. They have the power to repel other electrons. Water is a solvent. It has the power to dissolve salt. We use concepts of causal powers and their relatives, dispositions, capacities, abilities and so on, to describe the world around us, b...
| Other Authors: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
2017.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Causal powers are ubiquitous. Electrons are negatively charged. They have the power to repel other electrons. Water is a solvent. It has the power to dissolve salt. We use concepts of causal powers and their relatives, dispositions, capacities, abilities and so on, to describe the world around us, both in everyday life and in scientific practice. But what is it about the world that makes such descriptions apt? This collection brings together new and important work by both emerging scholars and those who helped shape the field on the nature of causal powers, and the connections between causal powers and other phenomena within metaphysics, philosophy of science and philosophy of mind. Contributors discuss how one who takes causal powers to be in some sense irreducible should think about laws of nature, scientific practice, causation, modality, space and time, persistence and the metaphysics of mind. |
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| Physical Description: | vi, 232 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0198796579 9780198796572 |