Concept
Disposition
Overview
A disposition is a quality of character, a habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way.
The terms dispositional belief and occurrent belief refer, in the former case, to a belief that is held in the mind but not currently being considered, and in the latter case, to a belief that is currently being considered by the mind.
In Bourdieu's theory of fields, dispositions are the natural tendencies of each individual to take on a specific position in any field. There is no strict determinism through one's dispositions. The habitus is the choice of positions according to one's dispositions. However, in retrospect, a space of possibilities can always be observed.
A disposition is not a process or event in some duration in time, but rather the state, preparation, or tendency of a structure "in waiting". In the field of possibilities, its actual triggering has a statistical value.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Disposition is discussed.
4. The disposition of the crex is pugnacious, but it is ingenious in providing for its own subsistence, though otherwise an unfortunate bird. The sitta is pugnacious, but its disposition is gentle and tractable, and its mode of life good. It is said to be medicinal, for it is skilful in many things. It produces many young, which it treats with kindness, and obtains its food by striking trees. 5.
Aristotle, Aristotle's History of Animals In Ten Books
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Habits are at the same time dispositions, but dispositions are not necessarily habits. For those who have some specific habit may be said also, in virtue of that habit, to be thus or thus disposed; but those who are disposed in some specific way have not in all cases the corresponding habit.
Aristotle, The Categories
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Thus we protect ourselves from taking as trivial a habit which is serious, and from exaggerating into momentousness an act which, viewed in the light of aggregate consequences, is innocent. There is no need to abandon common-sense which tells us in judging acts first to inquire into disposition; but there is great need that the estimate of disposition be enlightened by a scientific psychology. Our legal procedure…
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
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'Tis true, when the cause is complete, and a good disposition is attended with good fortune, which renders it really beneficial to society, it gives a stronger pleasure to the spectator, and is attended with a more lively sympathy. We are more affected by it; and yet we do not say that it is more virtuous, or that we esteem it more.
David Hume, Philosophical Works, v. 2
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The agent would never pronounce any such judgment upon his own disposition, unless as a sort of surprise that, his motive being 'good,' his actions turn out so 'bad' all the time. At most, the judgment regarding disposition is a sort of label put upon a man by others, a label of "Look out for him, he is dangerous," or, "Behold, a helpful man." The moral standard of hedonism does not, then, bear any relation to the…
John Dewey, Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
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Philosophers who discussed Disposition
Related ideas
- Belief
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Philosophical realism
- Logical positivism
- Metaphysics
- Mind
- David Malet Armstrong
- Anti-realism
- René Descartes
- Aristotle
- David Lewis (philosopher)
- Robert Boyle
- Christianity
- David Hume
- Ullin Place
- Jonathan Schaffer
- George Molnar (philosopher)
- Brian David Ellis
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.