Causal properties and conservative reduction

Abstract

The paper argues in favour of a causal-functional theory of all properties including the physical ones and a conception of properties as tropes or modes in the sense of particular ways that objects are. It shows how these premises open up a version of functionalism according to which the properties on which the special sciences focus are identical with configurations of physical properties and thereby causally efficacious without there being any threat of eliminativism.

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10.3196/003180211796334165

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Michael Esfeld
University of Lausanne

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References found in this work

Nature's Metaphysics: Laws and Properties.Alexander Bird - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
From an ontological point of view.John Heil - 2003 - New York: Oxford University Press.

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