Edu:Disposition

Disposition

1. prevailing tendency, mood, or inclination (Source: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)

2. a tendency of an object or system to act or react in characteristic ways in certain situations. (p.238 'disposition' in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Second Edition)

3. A disposition is a realizable dependent continuant that typically causes a specific process in the object in which it inheres when the object is introduced into certain specific circumstances. (Function, Role, and Disposition in Basic Formal Ontology, Robert Arp and Barry Smith, June 2008)

4. A realizable entity (a power, potential, or tendency) that exists because of certain features of the physical makeup of the independent continuant that is its bearer. (from Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology, R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear)

Commentary

• This term is often used more broadly in the philosophical literature, covering virtually all "realizable entities"