John Heil

The paper begins with a discussion of the nature of dispositions considered as intrinsic properties of objects the identity of which is determined by how they would manifest themselves with particular kinds of reciprocal disposition partners. Accepting an ontology of dispositions paves the way to an account of causality as the manifesting of dispositions. One important implication of this view is that causal relations are a species of internal relation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possibility of a Spinozistic universe and the place of dispositionality and efficient causation in such a universe.