Robert Schnepf – författare

Ordinary language and scientific discourse are filled with linguistic expressions for dispositional properties such as “soluble,” “elastic,” “reliable,” and “humorous.” We characterize objects in all domains – physical objects as well as human persons – with the help of dispositional expressions. Hence, the concept of a disposition has historically and systematically played a central role in different areas of philosophy ranging from metaphysics to ethics.The contributions of this volume analyze the ancient foundations of the discussion about disposition, examine the problem of disposition within the context of the foundation of modern science, and analyze this dispute up to the 20th century. Furthermore, articles explore the contemporary theories of dispositions.

Explaining things is a well-known part of both history and everyday life. But what comprises good and bad explanations is rarely explicitly discussed, even though we live in the midst of an overwhelming mass of competing approaches and theories. This can be irritating at times and gives rise to the thought that it is useless to search for the "real" explanation of a historical event or to inquire about the objectivity of some historical insight. But can we really do without the aspiration to get to true bottom of things? In this volume Robert Schnepf develops many arguments against forfeiting the demand for truth and provides criteria that can be used to differentiate between good and bad explanations.