- Hardcover: 252 pages
- Publisher: Clarendon Press (8 May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 019925978X
- ISBN-13: 978-0199259786
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.2 x 2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,999,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Powers: A Study in Metaphysics
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Review
Powers is a rich book. In the course of characterising and arguing for a posteriori dualism, Molnar contributes views on most of the important questions about dispositions ... Specialists in the metaphysics of dispositions...will surely value the book for its systematic coverage of the major topics. Non-specialists will also find the book useful, both as an introduction to the central philsophical issues surrounding dispositions, and as an example of a systematic approach to metaphysics. (Michael Fara, Mind )
In this probing little book, George Molnar rightly places the topic of causal power at the center of a proper understanding of many basic issues in metaphysics. ... Its scope and clarity of argument should enable one to assess the general prospects of his modalized vision of reality, while also providing a fine point of departure for finer-grained research programs. (Timothy O'Connor, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews )
In this probing little book, George Molnar rightly places the topic of causal power at the center of a proper understanding of many basic issues in metaphysics. ... Its scope and clarity of argument should enable one to assess the general prospects of his modalized vision of reality, while also providing a fine point of departure for finer-grained research programs. (Timothy O'Connor, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews )
Product Description
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.
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This is a book of analytic metaphysics by the late George Molnar. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This is a book of analytic metaphysics by the late George Molnar. Read the first page
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
George Molnar and the Powers that Be
25 April 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book presents a realist theory of causal metaphysics founded on a detailed ontological treatment of dispositional properties, or powers.
The book is a posthumous publication, Molnar having died in 1999. Some interesting biographical information is provided in the introduction by Stephen Mumford, as well as in a preface by D. M. Armstrong. Mumford also prepared the manuscript.
Molnar's theory is a realist account of dispositional properties as causal powers. This realism about dispositional properties and causality is in contrast to work in the Humean tradition which would eliminate dispositional properties and reduce apparent causal power to mere correlation. A traditional strategy is to employ a conditional analysis. Rather than ascribe the dispositional property of solubility to X, one simply notes that if X is placed in water, then it will dissolve. Another way to approach eliminating powers is to claim they can be reduced to categorical micro-physical properties (although many would view charge, mass, spin et. al as paradigm dispositional properties). Molnar defends dispositional properties as real and ineliminable causal powers of objects. He sees these as ubiquitous features of our world.
It is an impressive and interesting effort. In my opinion we need a theory of "real" causation, and this is a well-argued candidate theory. In the end, I disagree with the theory, but my thinking on the topic of causation was greatly enlightened and sharpened by Molnar's work.
The book is a posthumous publication, Molnar having died in 1999. Some interesting biographical information is provided in the introduction by Stephen Mumford, as well as in a preface by D. M. Armstrong. Mumford also prepared the manuscript.
Molnar's theory is a realist account of dispositional properties as causal powers. This realism about dispositional properties and causality is in contrast to work in the Humean tradition which would eliminate dispositional properties and reduce apparent causal power to mere correlation. A traditional strategy is to employ a conditional analysis. Rather than ascribe the dispositional property of solubility to X, one simply notes that if X is placed in water, then it will dissolve. Another way to approach eliminating powers is to claim they can be reduced to categorical micro-physical properties (although many would view charge, mass, spin et. al as paradigm dispositional properties). Molnar defends dispositional properties as real and ineliminable causal powers of objects. He sees these as ubiquitous features of our world.
It is an impressive and interesting effort. In my opinion we need a theory of "real" causation, and this is a well-argued candidate theory. In the end, I disagree with the theory, but my thinking on the topic of causation was greatly enlightened and sharpened by Molnar's work.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A Giant of a Study
15 Mar 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is amazing considering Molnar died before finishing it. At first I was wary of the fact that Mumford had edited it for publication since Mumford's own book on Dispositions is a different take on the subject and Molnar is critical of Mumford's position on dispositions. But, reading through the book I felt that Mumford had not rewritten it for himself. This is all Molnar. As to be expected, it was Molnar's controversial claim that dispositions are intentional that intrigued me the most. I was a little disappointed with his explication on this view that he calls physical intentionality (PI). He explains what PI is and defends it against objections, but he never gives a exhaustive treatment on what PI means for dispositions and how exactly it works and what the implications it entails. This was quite an oversight in my opinion, especially since his account of PI is more developed then the ones given by U.T. Place and C.B. Martin, oh, and John Heil. Also, since he never completed the book, the last chapter is extremely dense and undeveloped and approximates what read to be drafted notes on causation and modality. Despite these two negative features, the book is a veritable gold-mine on the subject of dispositions (or what he refers to as Powers) and a unique argument of his own dispositional metaphysics that must be accounted for in any further studies on dispositions.
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