Flavia Padovani
In: John Heil. Symposium on His Ontological Point of View, M. Esfeld (Ed.). Frankfurt a.M.: Ontos-Verlag, pp. 172-187.
Publication year: 2006

One of the most interesting aspects of Heil (2003) consists in the rejection of the traditional opposition between dispositional and categorical properties, parallel to a no-level view of reality. I argue that, from an epistemological perspective, this demands a definite stance on the real meaning and role that laws of nature play in this account. Unfortunately, this issue is not treated by the author in due detail. I will show that an adherence to a “mixed” categorical-dispositional interpretation of properties is incapable of adequately reflecting the business of science, unless some additional explanation is provided of how scientific law statements tell us something about the real world.