Dispositions, Conditionals, and Counterexamples

Mind 120 (480):1191-1227 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In an earlier paper in these pages (2008), we explored the puzzling link between dispositions and conditionals. First, we rehearsed the standard counterexamples to the simple conditional analysis and the refined conditional analysis defended by David Lewis. Second, we attacked a tempting response to these counterexamples: what we called the ‘getting specific strategy’. Third, we presented a series of structural considerations that pose problems for many attempts to understand the link between dispositions and conditionals. Finally, we developed our own account of this link, which avoids all of the standard counterexamples and comports with the relevant structural considerations. In this paper, we reply to some objections.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,349

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

Multi‐track dispositions.Barbara Vetter - 2013 - Philosophical Quarterly 63 (251):330-352.
Dispositions and subjunctives.Jesse R. Steinberg - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 148 (3):323 - 341.
Unfinkable dispositions.Toby Handfield - 2008 - Synthese 160 (2):297 - 308.
Dispositions revisited.William W. Rozeboom - 1973 - Philosophy of Science 40 (1):59-74.
Dispositions and Interferences.Gabriele Contessa - 2013 - Philosophical Studies 165 (2):401-419.
A gradable approach to dispositions.David Manley & Ryan Wasserman - 2007 - Philosophical Quarterly 57 (226):68–75.
The conditional analysis of dispositions and the intrinsic dispositions thesis.Sungho Choi - 2009 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 78 (3):568-590.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-06-13

Downloads
192 (#99,970)

6 months
20 (#126,042)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

David Manley
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Ryan Wasserman
Western Washington University

Citations of this work

Dispositions without Conditionals.Barbara Vetter - 2014 - Mind 123 (489):129-156.
Merely statistical evidence: when and why it justifies belief.Paul Silva - 2023 - Philosophical Studies 180 (9):2639-2664.
Abilities to Act.Randolph Clarke - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (12):893-904.
The question of realism for powers.Lorenzo Azzano - 2019 - Synthese 196 (1):329-354.

View all 23 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Finkish dispositions.David Kellogg Lewis - 1997 - Philosophical Quarterly 47 (187):143-158.
Dispositions and conditionals.C. B. Martin - 1994 - Philosophical Quarterly 44 (174):1-8.
Dispositions and antidotes.Alexander Bird - 1998 - Philosophical Quarterly 48 (191):227-234.

View all 8 references / Add more references