Powers at Work
Powers at Work
This chapter examines some of the work powers can do. It concentrates on two areas, causation and modality, and attempts to direct others to complete the theories of powers. It provides various definitions for ‘cause’ and ‘causation’ and cites the contested characteristics of causation. It explains why effects are polygenic and why manifestations are not, and it differentiates between single-track and multi-track powers. It also offers two kinds of conceptions of the laws of nature: transcendent and immanent. Under modality, the chapter examines the differences between reductionism and eliminativism and suggests truth is a form of modal primitivism. It also contends that necessity is central to science and common sense, so someone is sure to try and make a philosophical living out of inverting this obvious truth.
Keywords: causation, modality, reductionism, eliminativism, primitivism
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
