The Metaphysics of Contingency: A Theory of Objects’ Abilities and Dispositions
Ferenc Huoranszki, "The Metaphysics of Contingency: A Theory of Objects’ Abilities and Dispositions "
English | ISBN: 1350277142 | 2022 | 248 pages | PDF | 4 MB
English | ISBN: 1350277142 | 2022 | 248 pages | PDF | 4 MB
Philosophers approach the problem of possibility in two markedly different ways: with reference to worlds, whereby an event is possible if there is a world in which it occurs, and with reference to modal properties, whereby an event is a possible manifestation of a property of some substance or object.
Showing how the world-account cannot properly explain the nature of possibilities within worlds, Ferenc Huoranszki argues that the latter approach is more plausible. He develops a theory of contingent possibilities grounded in a distinction between abilities and dispositions as real, first-order modal properties of objects, with fundamentally distinct ontological roles.
By understanding abilities as first-order modal properties, and by linking such modal properties to counterfactual conditionals, Huoranszki argues we can distinguish between variably generic or specific abilities and identify more or less abstract possibilities
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