Capacities, Universality, and Singularity

Philosophy of Science 64 (4):605-626 (1997)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper I criticize Cartwright's analysis of capacities and offer an alternative analysis. I argue that Cartwright's attempt to connect capacities to her condition CC fails because individuals can exercise capacities only in certain contexts. My own analysis emphasizes three features of capacities: 1) Capacities belong to individuals; 2) Capacities are typically not metaphysically fundamental properties of individuals, but can be explained by referring to structural properties of individuals; and 3) Laws are best understood as ascriptions of capacities.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1086/392574

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,139

External links

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

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Nature's capacities and their measurement.Nancy Cartwright - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Cartwright and Mill on Tendencies and Capacities.Christoph Schmidt-Petri - 2008 - In Luc Bovens, Carl Hoefer & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Nancy Cartwright's Philosophy of Science. Routledge. pp. 291--302.
Back to the Primitive: From Substantial Capacities to Prime Matter.Andrew J. Jaeger - 2014 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 88 (3):381-395.
Responsibility and capacities: A note on the proportionality assumption.J. Ryberg - 2014 - Analysis 74 (3):393-397.
Causes and contexts: The foundations of laser theory.Margaret Morrison - 1994 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 45 (1):127-151.
Cartwright, Capacities, and Probabilities.Gurol Irzik - 1992 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1992:239 - 250.
Bare nominals and reference to capacities.Yoad Winter - manuscript
Inference or interaction: Social cognition without precursors.Shaun Gallagher - 2008 - Philosophical Explorations 11 (3):163 – 174.
A Case Study in Realism: Why Econometrics is Committed to Capacities.Nancy Cartwright - 1988 - PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 1988:190 - 197.
Capacities and Counterfactuals: A Reply to Haji and McKenna.Neil Levy - 2012 - Dialectica 66 (4):607-620.
The application of Cartwright's concept of capacities to complex interventions in psychiatry.Dieneke Hubbeling - 2012 - Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 18 (5):1013-1018.
Capacities, explanation and the possibility of disunity.Jakob Hohwy - 2003 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 17 (2):179 – 190.
Cartwright’s Realist Toil: From Entities to Capacities.Stathis Psillos - unknown
Complexly organised dynamical systems.John D. Collier & Clifford A. Hooker - 1999 - Open Systems and Information Dynamics 6 (3):241–302.
Why culture is common, but cultural evolution is rare.Rob Boyd - manuscript

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
397 (#47,339)

6 months
10 (#187,567)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Stuart Glennan
Butler University

Citations of this work

What is a mechanism? Thinking about mechanisms across the sciences.Phyllis Illari & Jon Williamson - 2012 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2 (1):119-135.
Rethinking mechanistic explanation.Stuart Glennan - 2002 - Proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association 2002 (3):S342-353.
Rethinking Mechanistic Explanation.Stuart Glennan - 2002 - Philosophy of Science 69 (S3):S342-S353.
Role functions, mechanisms, and hierarchy.Carl F. Craver - 2001 - Philosophy of Science 68 (1):53-74.

View all 26 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references