Neo-Aristotelian Plenitude

Agent Causation in a Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics

Freedom and moral responsibility have one foot in the practical realm of human affairs and the other in the esoteric realm of fundamental metaphysics—or so we believe. This has been denied, especially in the metaphysics-bashing era occupying the first two-thirds or so of the twentieth century, traces of which linger in the present day. But the reasons for this denial seem to us quite implausibl...

A Neo-Aristotelian Theory of Interactive Drama

Interactive drama has been discussed for a number of years as a new form of AI-based interactive entertainment (Laurel 1986, Bates 1992). While there has been substantial technical progress in building believable agents (Bates, Loyall and Reilly 1992, Blumberg 1996, HayesRoth, van Gent and Huber 1996), and some technical progress in interactive plot (Weyhrauch 1997), no work has yet been comple...

Causal Powers: a Neo-aristotelian Metaphysic

Causal powers, say, an electron’s power to repel other electrons, are had in virtue of having properties. Electrons repel other electrons because they are negatively charged. One’s views about causal powers are shaped by—and shape—one’s views concerning properties, causation, laws of nature and modality. It is no surprise, then, that views about the nature of causal powers are generally embedde...

Under Darwin’s Cosh? Neo-Aristotelian Thinking in Environmental Ethics

ions, as averages over populations of individuals) are not. Sober, rightly in my view, rejects both halves of this claim. (See Sober, ‘Evolution, Population Thinking, and Essentialism’, op. cit. note 18.) In the present context Mayr’s questionable metaphysical picture need not be a cause for concern. His key insight concerning the explanatory priority of individual variation in population think...

Essence, Plenitude, and Paradox