RT Article
T1 Potens per accidens sine accidentibus: Ockham on Material Substances and Their Essential Powers
JF Vivarium
VO 59
IS 1/2
SP 102
OP 122
A1 Simpson, Daniel J.
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1753024269
AB Abstract Medieval scholastics share a commitment to a substance-accident ontology and to an analysis of efficient causation in which agents act in virtue of their powers. Given these commitments, it seems ready-made which entities are the agents or powers: substances are agents and their accidents powers. William of Ockham, however, offers a rather different analysis concerning material substances and their essential powers, which this article explores. The article first examines Ockham’s account of propria and his reasons for claiming that a material substance is essentially powerful sine accidentibus . However, the article subsequently argues that, given Ockham’s reductionism about material substance, only substantial forms – never substances – are truly agents and powers. Thus, a material substance is essentially powerful but only by courtesy – per accidens , as Ockham calls it – because it has a non-identical part, its substantial form, which does all the causal work by itself, per se .
K1 Essence
K1 Substance
K1 efficient causation
K1 Causal powers
K1 William of Ockham
DO 10.1163/15685349-12341399