Powers: A Study in Metaphysics

254 Pages·2007·1.05 MB·English

by  the late George Molnar

Powers: A Study in Metaphysics
George Molnar came to see that the solution to a number of the prob-
lems of contemporary philosophy lay in the development of an alter-
native to Hume’s metaphysics. This alternative would have real causal
powers at its centre. Molnar set about developing a thorough account
of powers that might persuade those who remained, perhaps unknow-
ingly, in the grip of Humean assumptions. He succeeded in producing
something both highly focused and at the same time wide-ranging. He
showed both that the notion of a power was central and that it could
serve to dispel a number of long-standing philosophical problems.
Molnar’s account of powers is as realist as any that has so far
appeared. He shows that dispositions are as real as any other proper-
ties. Specifically, they do not depend for their existence on their
manifestations. Nevertheless, they are directed towards such manifes-
tations. Molnar thus appropriates the notion of intentionality, from
Brentano, and argues that it is the essential characteristic of powers. He
offers a persuasive case for there being some basic and ungrounded
powers, thus ruling out the reducibility of the dispositional to the non-
dispositional. However, he does allow that there are non-power prop-
erties as well as power properties. In this respect, his final position is
dualistic.
This is contemporary metaphysics of the highest quality. It is a work
that was almost complete when its author died. It has been edited for
publication by another specialist in the subject, Stephen Mumford,
who has also provided an introduction that will allow non-specialists
to become acquainted with the issues. David Armstrong, one of the
greatest living metaphysicians and personal friend of George Molnar,
has provided a Foreword.
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Powers
A Study in Metaphysics
George Molnar
Edited with an Introduction by
Stephen Mumford
and a Foreword by
D. M. Armstrong
1
3
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Foreword
D. M. Armstrong
George Molnar died suddenly before he completed his task. But the
book was well in progress and already stands as an important contri-
bution to a central topic in contemporary metaphysics: the theory of
dispositions or, as he put it, powers. We can be very grateful to Stephen
Mumford for making a volume from the much that we have. His excel-
lent Introduction serves in place of the introductory chapter that was
left unwritten. The chapters that were written put George’s theory in
front of us. Some further development there may have been, but noth-
ing essential.
The Introduction also contains some biographical information. The
strange thing about George’s academic career is that it fell into two
parts, parts separated by a twenty-year interval. He began his studies at
Sydney University in 1953 in economics, but shifted to philosophy
where John Anderson and after him John Mackie were the leading
figures. George was eventually appointed to a lectureship, primarily
to teach political philosophy. But the decisive moment in his philo-
sophical development came with the arrival at Sydney in 1966of C. B.
(Charlie) Martin, an American who had previously taught at Adelaide
University in the department headed by Jack Smart. George turned
towards metaphysics, a metaphysics that, following Martin, made cau-
sation and power central to an account of being. He had found a cen-
tral theme for his thought, one that he never let go of.
But then politics struck. In the late 1960s the universities of the West,
with Australia and Sydney no exception, were subject to what the late
David Stove called ‘red shift’. George shifted rather violently to the
Left. I understand that his political oratory was something to hear.
After the Sydney Philosophy department had been split into two,
George became a member of the new department of General Philoso-
phy, which was Marxist, feminist, and revolutionary. But that was not
the end of it. George eventually decided that it was morally wrong to
be taking public money to be teaching in such an institution as Sydney
viii / Foreword
University. A man of conscience, he made the mistake of acting in
accordance with it, and resigned his position.
One might have thought that that would be the end of George’s
interest in the abstractions of metaphysics. Most fortunately, it was
not. For the next twenty years he continued to read and think about
metaphysics. He reread the classics and kept up his reading in contem-
porary philosophy. He also stayed in philosophical touch with Charlie
Martin, who went on to Canada, as far I know the only such contact
that he had. After a period in England, I understand at a commune in
Leeds, he returned to Sydney. By that time it seems that the first flush
of revolutionary enthusiasm had died down, and George became a
civil servant, eventually reaching a position of some importance in the
Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Then, late in his life, in 1996or there-
abouts, he resumed contact with the life of philosophy in Australia.
He started once again to attend meetings and conferences, and to
associate with the Sydney philosophers. He seemed effortlessly to
resume his place in Australian philosophy. I particularly admired
his apparently complete absence of self-pity for the long years of self-
imposed exile. We lived in the same suburb, not far from Sydney
University, and he took to dropping in to talk and argue about meta-
physical matters, with powers and dispositions the central topic. Very
much the Hungarian mind, it seemed, with wit, clarity, forthrightness,
and an ability to write English better than most native speakers.
He had left the public service and returned to Sydney University as
Anderson Research Fellow. His book was rapidly taking shape. Then:
untimely death.
Acknowledgements
In compiling the list of references, I was helped in places by my col-
league Eros Corazza. I am grateful to the editors of the Philosophical
Quarterlyfor permission to include material that originally appeared in
volume49(1999),1–17. I am grateful also to Tony Skillen and to D. M.
Armstrong, who have taken an ongoing interest in the completion of
the manuscript. In particular, I would like to thank and pay tribute to
Carlotta McIntosh, without whom this book might never have seen
the light of day. She has shown a remarkable persistence and determi-
nation to see George Molnar’s most important work in print. She was
aided in the early stages by Marnie Hanlon and Ross Poole.
I have no doubt that George Molnar would have included his own
list of people who helped and stimulated him to write this book.
Rather than attempt to construct such a list, which would no doubt
have been incomplete, I had best mention no one at all. Those who
knew and helped George with the main philosophical project of his
life will know who they are. His list of citations and references also
gives a good indication of his main inspirations.
S. M.