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Reconsidering the Dispositional Essentialist Canon.

Samuel Kimpton-Nye¹

¹University of Bristol, Cotham House, Bristol, BS6 6JL UK.

Philosophical Studies

|November 1, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This paper introduces Canonical Dispositional Essentialism (CDE) and an alternative view of properties and laws of nature. The alternative offers better scientific continuity and explanatory power than CDE.

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Area of Science:

Metaphysics of Science
Philosophy of Physics

Background:

Dispositional Essentialism offers an anti-Humean framework for understanding physical properties and laws.
Canonical Dispositional Essentialism (CDE) posits a structuralist metaphysics of properties and laws as relations within this structure.

Purpose of the Study:

To articulate Canonical Dispositional Essentialism (CDE).
To present and defend an alternative anti-Humean account of properties and laws.
To compare the alternative view with CDE, highlighting its advantages in scientific continuity and explanatory power.

Main Methods:

Articulating the metaphysical framework of CDE.
Developing an alternative dispositional essentialist account.
Comparative analysis of CDE and the alternative account based on explanatory power and scientific continuity.

Main Results:

CDE is defined as a structuralist metaphysics where laws are relations in the property structure.
An alternative view is proposed, treating properties as qualitative grounds of dispositions and laws as features of efficient descriptions.
The alternative view demonstrates superior explanatory capacity and greater continuity with scientific practice compared to CDE.

Conclusions:

The proposed alternative offers a more scientifically integrated and explanatorily robust anti-Humean account of properties and laws.
This work significantly refines the search for the optimal unified metaphysical account of fundamental physical properties and laws.