The Powers Metaphysic

Author : Neil E. Williams
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0198833571
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Powers Metaphysic written by Neil E. Williams and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Systematic metaphysics is defined by its task of solving metaphysical problems through the repeated application of single, fundamental ontology. The dominant contemporary metaphysic is that of neo-Humeanism, built on a static ontology typified by its rejection of basic causal and modalfeatures. This book offers a radically distinct metaphysic, one that turns the status quo on its head. Starting with a foundational ontology of inherently causal properties known as "powers", Neil E. Williams develops a metaphysic that appeals to powers in explanations of causation, persistence,laws, and modality. Powers are properties that have their causal natures internal to them: they are responsible for the effects in the world. A unique account of powers is advanced, one that understands this internal nature in terms of blueprint of potential interaction types. After the presentationof the powers ontology, Williams offers solutions to broad metaphysical puzzles, some of which take on different forms in light of the new tools that are available. The defence of the ontology comes from the virtues of metaphysic it can be used to develop. Particular attention is paid to theproblems of causation and persistence, simultaneously solving them as is casts them in a new light. The resultant powers metaphysic is offered as a systematic alternative to neo-Humeanism.

Author : Neil E. Williams
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192570153
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Powers Metaphysic written by Neil E. Williams and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-12 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Systematic metaphysics is defined by its task of solving metaphysical problems through the repeated application of single, fundamental ontology. The dominant contemporary metaphysic is that of neo-Humeanism, built on a static ontology typified by its rejection of basic causal and modal features. This book offers a radically distinct metaphysic, one that turns the status quo on its head. Starting with a foundational ontology of inherently causal properties known as 'powers', Neil E. Williams develops a metaphysic that appeals to powers in explanations of causation, persistence, laws, and modality. Powers are properties that have their causal natures internal to them: they are responsible for the effects in the world. A unique account of powers is advanced, one that understands this internal nature in terms of blueprint of potential interaction types. After the presentation of the powers ontology, Williams offers solutions to broad metaphysical puzzles, some of which take on different forms in light of the new tools that are available. The defence of the ontology comes from the virtues of metaphysic it can be used to develop. Particular attention is paid to the problems of causation and persistence, simultaneously solving them as is casts them in a new light. The resultant powers metaphysic is offered as a systematic alternative to neo-Humeanism.

Author : George Molnar
Publisher : Clarendon Press
ISBN 13 : 0191514012
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Powers written by George Molnar and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2006-11-30 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Molnar came to see that the solution to a number of the problems of contemporary philosophy lay in the development of an alternative to Hume's metaphysics. This alternative would have real causal powers at its centre. Molnar set about developing a thorough account of powers that might persuade those who remained, perhaps unknowingly, in the grip of Humean assumptions. He succeeded in producing something both highly focused and at the same time wide-ranging. He showed both that the notion of a power was central and that it could serve to dispel a number of long-standing philosophical problems. Molnar's account of powers is as realist as any that has so far appeared. He shows that dispositions are as real as any other properties. Specifically, they do not depend for their existence on their manifestations. Nevertheless, they are directed towards such manifestations. Molnar thus appropriates the notion of intentionality, from Brentano, and argues that it is the essential characteristic of powers. He offers a persuasive case for there being some basic and ungrounded powers, thus ruling out the reducibility of the dispositional to the non-dispositional. However, he does allow that there are non-power properties as well as power properties. In this respect, his final position is dualistic. This is contemporary metaphysics of the highest quality. It is a work that was almost complete when its author died. It has been edited for publication by another specialist in the subject, Stephen Mumford, who has also provided an introduction that will allow non-specialists to become acquainted with the issues. David Armstrong, one of the greatest living metaphysicians and personal friend of George Molnar, has provided a Foreword.

Author : Anna Marmodoro
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136968342
Total Pages : 413 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Metaphysics of Powers written by Anna Marmodoro and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of papers that advance our understanding of the metaphysics of powers — properties such as fragility and electric charge. The metaphysics of powers is a fast developing research field with fundamental questions at the forefront of current research, such as Can there be a world of only powers? What is the manifestation of a power? Are powers and their manifestations related by necessity? What are the prospects for dispositional accounts of causation? The papers focus on questions concerning the metaphysics of powers that cut across any particular subject-specific ontological domain -- whether philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, ethics, epistemology – investigating the metaphysical structure of powers, the nature of the manifestation of powers, the necessity or contingency of a power’s relation to its manifestations, and powers and causation. A number of authors also engage in discussion with Humean and neo-Humean treatments of causation, thereby making contributions to a larger metaphysical debate beyond powers. Additionally, the authors engage critically with the latest contributions to the debate on powers in the literature, thereby bringing together in a wholesome and analytical way the most recent and noteworthy theoretical developments in this research field.

Author : Peter K. Unger
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780195155617
Total Pages : 690 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book All the Power in the World written by Peter K. Unger and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2006 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unger provocatively breaks with what he terms the conservatism of present day philosophy, and returns to central themes from Descartes, Locke, Hume and others. He sets out to answer profoundly difficult human questions about ourselves and the world in this philosophical journey into the nature of reality.

Author : Robert B Stone
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Power of Miracle Metaphysics written by Robert B Stone and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-02 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book introduces you to the miraculous metaphysical powers within you right now, by giving you the methods you need to put them into positive action. In a few days you can be demonstrating these powers in many ways. If I tell you in what ways now it will astound you. But these incredible happenings will become commonplace for you by the time you finish this book." (From the introduction by Dr. Stone.)

Author : Jessica M. Wilson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192556975
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Metaphysical Emergence written by Jessica M. Wilson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both the special sciences and ordinary experience suggest that there are metaphysically emergent entities and features: macroscopic goings-on (including mountains, trees, humans, and sculptures, and their characteristic properties) which depend on, yet are distinct from and distinctively efficacious with respect to, lower-level physical configurations and features. These appearances give rise to two key questions. First, what is metaphysical emergence, more precisely? Second, is there any metaphysical emergence, in principle and moreover in fact? Metaphysical Emergence provides clear and systematic answers to these questions. Wilson argues that there are two, and only two, forms of metaphysical emergence of the sort seemingly at issue in the target cases: 'Weak' emergence, whereby a dependent feature has a proper subset of the powers of the feature upon which it depends, and 'Strong' emergence, whereby a dependent feature has a power not had by the feature upon which it depends. Weak emergence unifies and illuminates seemingly diverse accounts of non-reductive physicalism; Strong emergence does the same as regards seemingly diverse anti-physicalist views positing fundamental novelty at higher levels of compositional complexity. After defending the in-principle viability of each form of emergence, Wilson considers whether complex systems, ordinary objects, consciousness, and free will are actually metaphysically emergent. She argues that Weak emergence is quite common, and that there is Strong emergence in the important case of free will.

Author : Conny Méndez
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789806114814
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Power Through Metaphysics written by Conny Méndez and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The English language version of Metafisica 4 en 1. It includes the titles: Metaphysics for everyone, Your heart's desire, The mystical number 7, and Who is and who was the Count Saint-Germain?

Author : Michael J. Loux
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780199284221
Total Pages : 740 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics written by Michael J. Loux and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2005-09-08 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some of the world's specialists provide in this handbook essays about what kinds of things there are, in what ways they exist, and how they relate to each other. They give the word on such topics as identity, modality, time, causation, persons and minds, freedom, and vagueness.

Author : Tsarina Doyle
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 1108417280
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nietzsche's Metaphysics of the Will to Power written by Tsarina Doyle and published by . This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a fresh interpretation of Nietzsche's controversial account of nature and value in relation to Kant and Hume.