Philosophy of Nature

For many years essentialism was considered beyond the pale in philosophy, a relic of discredited Aristotelianism. This is no longer so. Kripke and Putnam have made belief in essential natures respectable once more. Harré and Madden have argued against Hume''s theory of causation and developed an alternative theory based on the assumption that there are genuine causal powers in nature. Dretske, Too...