Theory of Causation and Substance Ontology Based on Contemporary Power Realism

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Philosophy/Ethics
• Research Institution: Saitama University
• Principal Investigator: KACHI Daisuke 埼玉大学, 人文社会科学研究科(系), 教授 (50251145)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 力能 / 因果 / 実体 / 様相 / 実在論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I have come to the following conclusions concerning substance and causation, based on power realism:
(1)Power is a property that should be individuated by its manifestation alone. Its modal nature is potentiality, which is a kind of possibility accompanied by degrees. Power is a source of metaphysical modalities concerning substantial objects, as well as essence and endurance. (2)We should replace the so-called <two-event model of causation>,　which takes two successive events as causal relata, with <things-process model of causation>, which insists that substantial objects as causes, by a process of exercising their causal powers, simultaneously bring about a process of their powers' recipients being changed.

Free Research Field

哲学