PhilSci Archive

Antidotes all the way down?

Bird, Alexander (2004) Antidotes all the way down? THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 19 (3). pp. 259-269. ISSN 2171-679X

[img]
Preview
PDF
581-682-1-PB.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (232kB)

Abstract

This paper concerns the relationship between dispositions and ceteris paribus laws. Dispositions are related to conditionals. Typically a fragile glass will break if struck with force. But possession of the disposition does not entail the corresponding simple (subjunctive or counterfactual) conditional. The phenomena of finks and antidotes show that an object may possess the disposition without the conditional being true. Finks and antidotes may be thought of as exceptions to the straightforward relation between disposition and conditional. The existence of these phenomena are easy to demonstrate at the macro-level. But do they exist at the fundamental level also? While fundamental finkish dispositions may be excluded fairly straight-forwardly, the existence of fundamental antidotes is more open. Nonetheless I conclude that the phenomenon is likely to be less widespread than at the macro level and that fundamental antidotes may be eliminable. According to the dispositional essentialist, the laws of nature can be explained by taking natural properties to be essentially dispositional. This account can be extended to show that the existence of finks and antidotes explains ceteris paribus laws. Consequently the existence or otherwise of fundamental finks and antidotes sheds some light on the question of whether fundamental laws may also be ceteris paribus laws.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Published Article or Volume
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Bird, Alexanderalexander.bird@bris.ac.uk
Additional Information: ISSN: 0495-4548 (print)
Keywords: dispositions, laws, finks, antidotes, finkish dispositions, ceteris paribus laws, dispositional essentialism
Depositing User: Users 15304 not found.
Date Deposited: 11 Mar 2014 17:56
Last Modified: 11 Mar 2014 17:56
Item ID: 10494
Journal or Publication Title: THEORIA. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science
Publisher: Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea / Universidad del País Vasco
Official URL: http://www.ehu.es/ojs/index.php/THEORIA/article/vi...
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1387/theoria.581
Date: September 2004
Page Range: pp. 259-269
Volume: 19
Number: 3
ISSN: 2171-679X
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/10494

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Altmetric.com

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item