No Physical Particles for a Dispositional Monist? - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Philosophical Papers Année : 2015

No Physical Particles for a Dispositional Monist?

Baptiste Le Bihan

Résumé

A dispositional monist believes that all properties are essentially causal. Recently, an overdetermination argument has been proposed by Trenton Merricks to support nihilism about ordinary objects. I argue that this argument can be extended to target both nihilism about ordinary objects and nihilism about physical particles when dispositional monism is assumed. It implies that a philosopher who both endorses dispositional monism and takes seriously the overdetermination argument should not believe in the existence of physical particles. I end up by discussing possible objections. I suggest, then, that if we live in a world that is inhabited by causal properties but not by chairs and tables, then we also live in a world without electrons and quarks, a world of dispositional properties, that is, a world of causal fields
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
No_Physical_Particles_for_a_Dispositiona.pdf (213.7 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...

Dates et versions

hal-01202010 , version 1 (25-01-2016)

Identifiants

Citer

Baptiste Le Bihan. No Physical Particles for a Dispositional Monist?. Philosophical Papers, 2015, 44 (2), pp.207--232. ⟨10.1080/05568641.2015.1056960⟩. ⟨hal-01202010⟩
106 Consultations
188 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More