Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-w5vf4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-23T00:47:09.362Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tendencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Quentin Gibson
Quentin Gibson*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy Australian National University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The question is raised, what is going on when there is a tendency for something to happen, but it does not happen. A conspicuous case is that in which there is an equilibrium between opposing forces. One answer, given, for example, by Anscombe and Geach, Harré, and Bhaskar, is that such tendencies are in a sense real, though not manifest. The other answer, given, for example, by Braithwaite and Mackie, is that statements of tendencies are conditional statements about what is manifest but ones in which some antecedents are not specified. The first of these answers is criticized and the second defended.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 296 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anscombe, G. E. M. and Geach, P. T. (1961), Three Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bhaskar, R. (1975), A Realist Theory of Science. Leeds: Leeds Books.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, R. B. (1953), Scientific Explanation. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Broad, C. D. (1944), “Hr. Von Wright on the Logic of Induction I”, Mind 53: 1–24.10.1093/mind/LIII.209.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, Q. B. (1960), The Logic of Social Enquiry. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Harré, R. (1970), The Principles of Scientific Thinking. London: Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-349-81592-0CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harré, R. and Madden, E. H. (1975), Causal Powers. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hempel, C. G. (1965), Aspects of Scientific Explanation. N.Y.: Free Press.Google Scholar
Mackie, J. (1965), “Causes and Conditions”, American Philosophical Quarterly 2: 245–265.Google Scholar
Mackie, J. (1974), The Cement of the Universe. Oxford: University Press.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. (1947), A System of Logic. London: Longmans Green.Google Scholar
Ryan, A. (1970), The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Toulmin, S. E. (1953), The Philosophy of Science. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar