Dispositions and Causal Powers

This monograph examines the metaphysics of dispositions and causal powers, exploring their fundamental role in understanding reality's structure. Dumsday engages with contemporary debates in analytic metaphysics concerning whether properties should be conceived as purely categorical, purely dispositional, or some combination thereof. The work contributes to natural theology by investigating how different theories of properties and causation bear on arguments for God's existence and divine action.

The author systematically analyzes competing accounts of dispositions, from Humean skepticism about necessary connections to neo-Aristotelian powers ontologies. Dumsday evaluates categorical monism, which reduces all properties to non-dispositional qualities, against dispositional essentialism, which holds that at least some properties are essentially powerful. He examines the conditional analysis of dispositions, various forms of the categorical basis thesis, and recent arguments for pandispositionalism. The work addresses central puzzles including the problem of unmanifested dispositions, multi-track powers, and the relationship between dispositions and laws of nature.

Dumsday's analysis reveals how different positions on dispositions affect theological arguments. If properties are purely categorical, as Humeans maintain, then regular causal sequences require external governance, potentially supporting design arguments. Conversely, if properties possess intrinsic causal powers, nature exhibits inherent teleology that some argue points toward divine wisdom. The author examines how dispositional realism impacts discussions of divine conservation, occasionalism, and the metaphysics of miracles. He considers whether God's sustaining activity differs given categorical versus dispositional properties, and whether powers ontologies make divine action more or less intelligible.

The monograph engages critically with major figures including David Lewis, David Armstrong, Sydney Shoemaker, C.B. Martin, George Molnar, and Alexander Bird. Dumsday draws on both historical sources, particularly Aristotelian and scholastic traditions, and cutting-edge contemporary metaphysics. He demonstrates how seemingly abstract metaphysical disputes about the nature of properties connect directly to perennial theological questions about God's relationship to creation.

This work advances the God debate by showing how fundamental metaphysical commitments shape theological possibilities. Rather than treating philosophy of religion in isolation, Dumsday illustrates how general metaphysics constrains and informs arguments about divine existence and action. His careful analysis provides resources for both theistic and naturalistic philosophers seeking metaphysically rigorous accounts of causation, laws, and explanation.