RECENT WORKS Recent Work on Dispositions

Controversy about dispositions ranges over the following four domains: (i) the semantics of disposition ascriptions; (ii) the distinction between dis-positional and categorical properties; (iii) the metaphysical status of dispos-itions, i.e. their fundamentality, naturalness and intrinsicness; and (iv) the various dispositional analyses of philosophical notions like causation, laws, modality, counterfactuals, chance, knowledge, freedom, belief, desire and colour. While the proper order of investigation among these areas is itself a matter of dispute (Heil 2003: 51), the semantics of disposition ascriptions is the de facto point of entry. The traditional approach to disposition ascriptions found, for instance, in Ryle (2000) and Goodman (1983), evaluates ascriptions of conventional dispositional predicates by appeal to a corresponding subjunctive condi-tional. The approach may be broken down into two distinct steps (Lewis 1997). In the first, a conventional dispositional predicate, D, is associated with characteristic stimulation conditions, C, and manifestation conditions