Résumé
Dispositional realism, as I have defended it in Le Ciment des choses, relies on four main assumptions: 1. A causal theory of properties, 2. A conditional dispositionalist account of laws; 3. Some kind of aliquidditism (or thin essentialism). 4. An emphasis laid not only on efficient causation but on some teleological aspects of causation. After a short sketch of the framework, the talk will insist on the first and fourth assumptions, and explain why stressing the role of causal powers and causal relations on the one hand, and trying to make sense of some teleological aspects of causation, on the other hand, can provide new prospects for an analysis of the puzzling concepts of causation and causal explanation.
