Comunicação
The Extrinsic Dispositions Thesis and Fundamental Physics
Organização:  European Philosophy of Science Association
Kolarac People's University Building, Belgrado
21 / 09 / 2023
Resumo:

There is a fairly broad consensus that the Intrinsic Dispositions Thesis applies to the overwhelming majority of powers or dispositions. We shall challenge this view both in philosophical and physical terms. First, we shall argue that the Extrinsic Dispositions Thesis applies to all powers whose manifestation necessarily depends on the obtaining of some causal relation between their bearers and some external entities. Solubility, fragility, and flammability are clear examples of such powers. We shall call them relational causal powers (RCPs). According to the proposed argument, every RCP is a complex relational property, its instantiation thus implying the instantiation of its constitutive co-relata, as well as the existence of its constitutive relation as a possible relation. In the second part of our talk, we shall analyse and discuss the extrinsic-relational of some properties instantiated by the fundamental physical entities, such as electric charge, colour charge and spin.


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