Nomological Dispositionalism and Its Problems: Redundancy, Experimentalism, and Nomic Modality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2022iss20pp251-270Keywords:
laws, dispositional propierties, modality, experimentalism, meta-metaphysicsAbstract
Nomological dispositionalism has occupied a center stage in contemporary metaphysics about laws, holding the view that laws of nature derive from an ontology of intrinsically modal dispositional properties. This view faces, though, various challenges, some of which are worth revisiting. Among them, dispositionalism about properties condemns laws to ontological redundancy; its reconstruction of properties does not seem to fit with experimentalism; it introduces a view of metaphysical modality that ambiguously moves between (de dicto) logical modality and (de re) physical modality; and it assumes fundamentalist meta-metaphysical presuppositions. Rather than dismantling nomological dispositionalism –quite the contrary, we believe it is a valuable theory–, we aim at identifying those nodes where alternative strategies could be followed in a theory of laws.
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