Elena Padoan
Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI)
The question I aim to address in my talk is “What is a token disposition?”. For example, what is the token disposition to break if struck?
To answer this question, I will assume a tropes ontology and I will provide a possible definition of token dispositions within a version of the Nuclear Tropes Theory (Simons, 1994), which is a theory of objects as bundles of tropes constituting a nucleus, the essential tropes, and a periphery, the accidental tropes.
To achieve this goal, I will start by assuming and presenting Lewis’ (1997) analysis of what it is to have a token disposition. This analysis is characterised by an intrinsic property, or causal basis, B, the causal relation and the counterfactual conditional for a certain stimulus S and a certain response R.
In my definition of “token disposition” these entities will be arranged in the Nuclear Tropes Model arguing for a third option that goes in the direction of the second alternative among the following two ones:
a) the Identity theory of dispositions with the causal basis (Armstrong 1997);
b) the Distinctness theory of dispositions with the causal basis (Prior, Pargetter and Jackson, 1982).
Chair: Peihong Xie
Time: 05 September, 10:00-10:30
Location: HS E.002
SOPhiA 2026 