Powers Study in Metaphysics.Pdf

Powers: A Study in Metaphysics 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 unknow- ingly, 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. This page intentionally left blank Powers A Study in Metaphysics George Molnar Edited with an Introduction by Stephen Mumford and a Foreword by D. M. Armstrong 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox26dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. 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(Herakleitos) This page intentionally left blank Foreword D. M. Armstrong George Molnar died suddenly before he completed his task. But the book was well in progress and already stands as an important contri- bution to a central topic in contemporary metaphysics: the theory of dispositions or, as he put it, powers. We can be very grateful to Stephen Mumford for making a volume from the much that we have. His excel- lent Introduction serves in place of the introductory chapter that was left unwritten. The chapters that were written put George’s theory in front of us. Some further development there may have been, but noth- ing essential. The Introduction also contains some biographical information. The strange thing about George’s academic career is that it fell into two parts, parts separated by a twenty-year interval. He began his studies at Sydney University in 1953 in economics, but shifted to philosophy where John Anderson and after him John Mackie were the leading figures. George was eventually appointed to a lectureship, primarily to teach political philosophy. But the decisive moment in his philosophical development came with the arrival at Sydney in 1966 of C. B. (Charlie) Martin, an American who had previously taught at Adelaide University in the department headed by Jack Smart. George turned towards metaphysics, a metaphysics that, following Martin, made cau- sation and power central to an account of being. He had found a central theme for his thought, one that he never let go of. But then politics struck. In the late 1960s the universities of the West, with Australia and Sydney no exception, were subject to what the late David Stove called ‘red shift’. George shifted rather violently to the Left. I understand that his political oratory was something to hear. After the Sydney Philosophy department had been split into two, George became a member of the new department of General Philoso- phy, which was Marxist, feminist, and revolutionary. But that was not the end of it. George eventually decided that it was morally wrong to be taking public money to be teaching in such an institution as Sydney viii / Foreword University. A man of conscience, he made the mistake of acting in accordance with it, and resigned his position. One might have thought that that would be the end of George’s interest in the abstractions of metaphysics. Most fortunately, it was not. For the next twenty years he continued to read and think about metaphysics. He reread the classics and kept up his reading in contemporary philosophy. He also stayed in philosophical touch with Charlie Martin, who went on to Canada, as far I know the only such contact that he had. After a period in England, I understand at a commune in Leeds, he returned to Sydney. By that time it seems that the first flush of revolutionary enthusiasm had died down, and George became a civil servant, eventually reaching a position of some importance in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Then, late in his life, in 1996 or there- abouts, he resumed contact with the life of philosophy in Australia. He started once again to attend meetings and conferences, and to associate with the Sydney philosophers. He seemed effortlessly to resume his place in Australian philosophy. I particularly admired his apparently complete absence of self-pity for the long years of self- imposed exile. We lived in the same suburb, not far from Sydney University, and he took to dropping in to talk and argue about meta- physical matters, with powers and dispositions the central topic. Very much the Hungarian mind, it seemed, with wit, clarity, forthrightness, and an ability to write English better than most native speakers. He had left the public service and returned to Sydney University as Anderson Research Fellow. His book was rapidly taking shape. Then: untimely death. Acknowledgements In compiling the list of references, I was helped in places by my col- league Eros Corazza. I am grateful to the editors of the Philosophical Quarterly for permission to include material that originally appeared in volume 49 (1999), 1–17. I am grateful also to Tony Skillen and to D. M. Armstrong, who have taken an ongoing interest in the completion of the manuscript. In particular, I would like to thank and pay tribute to Carlotta McIntosh, without whom this book might never have seen the light of day. She has shown a remarkable persistence and determi- nation to see George Molnar’s most important work in print. She was aided in the early stages by Marnie Hanlon and Ross Poole. I have no doubt that George Molnar would have included his own list of people who helped and stimulated him to write this book. Rather than attempt to construct such a list, which would no doubt have been incomplete, I had best mention no one at all. Those who knew and helped George with the main philosophical project of his life will know who they are. His list of citations and references also gives a good indication of his main inspirations. S. M. This page intentionally left blank Contents INTRODUCTION: George Molnar and Powers 1 Stephen Mumford POWERS 19 George Molnar 1. The Elements (I): Properties 21 1.1 Foundations 21 1.2 Properties Are Tropes 22 1.3 Selective Realism about Properties 25 1.3.1 Predicates and properties are not isomorphic 25 1.3.2 Dispositional predicates and power properties are not isomorphic 27 1.4 Distinctions 28 1.4.1 Derivative–basic 28 1.4.2 First order–higher order 30 1.4.3 Simple–complex 33 1.4.4 Essential–necessary–accidental 37 1.4.5 Extrinsic–intrinsic 39 1.4.6 Transferable–non-transferable 43 2. The Elements (II): On What There Is 47 2.1 Objects as Bundles of Properties 47 2.2 Foundationism about Relations 51 2.3 The Status of States of Affairs 54 2.4 Introduction to the Theory of Powers 57 3.

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