The Ultimate Argument Against Dispositional Monist Accounts of Laws

Analysis 72 (4):714-722 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Bird argues that Armstrong’s necessitarian conception of physical modality and laws of nature generates a vicious regress with respect to necessitation. We show that precisely the same regress afflicts Bird’s dispositional-monist theory, and indeed, related views, such as that of Mumford & Anjum. We argue that dispositional monism is basically Armstrongian necessitarianism modified to allow for a thesis about property identity

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 97,060

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-10-07

Downloads
855 (#21,517)

6 months
141 (#39,475)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Stephen Barker
Nottingham University
Benjamin Smart
University of Johannesburg

Citations of this work

Reconsidering the Dispositional Essentialist Canon.Samuel Kimpton-Nye - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 178 (10):3421-3441.
Laws of Nature: Necessary and Contingent.Samuel Kimpton-Nye - 2022 - Philosophical Quarterly 72 (4):875-895.
No laws and (thin) powers in, no (governing) laws out.Stavros Ioannidis, Vassilis Livanios & Stathis Psillos - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1):1-26.
Modal Idealism.David Builes - forthcoming - Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind.

View all 30 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Nature's Metaphysics: Laws and Properties.Alexander Bird - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Laws of nature.Fred I. Dretske - 1977 - Philosophy of Science 44 (2):248-268.
The nature of laws.Michael Tooley - 1977 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7 (4):667-98.
What Is a Law of Nature?[author unknown] - 1986 - Critica 18 (52):129-131.

View all 12 references / Add more references