Conceptualizing causal powers: activity, capacity, essence, necessitation

Synthese 199 (3-4):9881-9896 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Talk of powers is muddled. Building upon Powers and capacities in philosophy: The new aristotelianism, Routledge, London, 2012a, pp 207–227), I disambiguate four senses of the term: powers construed as activity, as capacity/potentiality, as essence and as necessity, respectively, in an attempt to clarify what it is that realists about causal powers take themselves to be realists about.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1007/s11229-021-03229-x

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 93,891

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

Powers and Capacities in Philosophy: The New Aristotelianism. By Ruth Groff and John Greco. [REVIEW]Tamer Nawar - 2014 - Philosophical Quarterly 64 (257):670-672.
Emergence, Causal Powers, and Aristotelianism in Metaphysics.Eleonore Stump - 2012 - In Ruth Groff & John Greco (eds.), Powers and Capacities: The New Aristotelianism. pp. 48-68.
The dynamical essence of powers.Andrea Roselli & Christopher Austin - 2021 - Synthese 199 (5):14951-14973.
Philosophy, metaphilosophy and ideology-critique: an interview with Ruth Porter Groff.Ruth Porter Groff & Jamie Morgan - 2022 - Journal of Critical Realism 22 (2):256-292.
Review of Groff and Greco, Powers and Capacities in Philosophy: the New Aristotelianism. [REVIEW]Troy Cross - 2013 - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
Powers and Capacities in Philosophy: The New Aristotelianism.John Greco & Ruth Groff (eds.) - 2013 - New York: Routledge.
Causal Powers and the Necessity of Realization.Umut Baysan - 2017 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 25 (4):525-531.
The Hermeneutics of the Causal Powers of Meaningful Objects.Amit Ron - 2010 - Journal of Critical Realism 9 (2):155-171.
Inessential Aristotle : Powers Without Essences.Anjan Chakravartty - 2008 - In Ruth Groff (ed.), Revitalizing causality: realism about causality in philosophy and social science. New York: Routledge. pp. 153-162.
Inessential Aristotle: Powers without essences.Anjan Chakravartty - 2008 - In Ruth Groff (ed.), Revitalizing causality: realism about causality in philosophy and social science. New York: Routledge. pp. 153-162.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-06-19

Downloads
83 (#198,178)

6 months
24 (#148,306)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Ruth Groff
St. Louis University

Citations of this work

Laws of Nature.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2024 - In A. R. J. Fisher & Anna-Sofia Maurin (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Properties. London: Routledge. pp. 337-346.
Dispositions, Virtues, and Indian Ethics.Andrea Raimondi & Ruchika Jain - 2024 - Journal of Religious Ethics (2):262-297.
Em Defesa do Necessitarismo Causal.Caio Cézar Silva dos Santos - 2023 - Dissertation, Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro

Add more citations

References found in this work

How the laws of physics lie.Nancy Cartwright - 1983 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Nature's Metaphysics: Laws and Properties.Alexander Bird - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
A realist theory of science.Roy Bhaskar - 1975 - New York: Routledge.
Scientific Essentialism.Brian Ellis - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.

View all 31 references / Add more references