Towards a Neo-Aristotelian Hybrid Metaphysics of Modality

Arkadiusz Synowczyk

Università della Svizzera italiana (USI)

Most work in neo-Aristotelian metaphysics of modality divides into two broad approaches: essence-first and powers-first. The former defines necessity as truth in virtue of essences, and possibility as what is not false in virtue of essences. The latter begins with possibility, understood in terms of potentialities, and defines necessity as the absence of potentialities for the contrary. A hybrid essence-and-powers approach, by contrast, has been considered by Barbara Vetter, but only to be rejected. This paper argues that such a view remains a viable option.

Vetter’s core objection is that a hybrid account cannot preserve the familiar dualities between necessity and possibility. This argument, however, relies on a particular formalisation of the relation between essences and potentialities. Specifically, Vetter requires the attribution of a potentiality for p, or of the absence of a potentiality for ¬p, to be evaluated with respect to the very same plurality of entities whose essences are invoked.

I propose instead that the relevant biconditionals be formulated over the total configuration of essences and potentialities involved. On this basis, I argue that Vetter’s counterexamples do not establish the failure of duality. Moreover, given assumptions common to neo-Aristotelian approaches to modality, I show that the duality between essences and potentialities is bound to hold.

Beyond the problem of duality, Vetter argues that any account restoring the modal dualities threatens overdetermination. In response, I place the hybrid account within a more general account of objective modality. On this proposal, it is necessary that p if and only if ¬p is incompatible with the overall nature of the entities involved, and possible that p if and only if p is compatible with that nature. This, however, does not introduce a separate ground of modality. Rather, in considering the nature of things to assess possibility and necessity, one is examining precisely essences and powers.

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