I outline and consider the prospects for an account of causation suitable for a metaphysics of dispositions. Such an account suggests that causes are conditionally sufficient (rather than necessary) for their effects. I consider what semantics for subjunctive and counterfactual conditionals this requires, and examine the consequences for making a distinction between causes and mere conditions a...

1 Mandative constructions: Delimiting the object of the study Mandative constructions express that a certain action (should) be performed or a certain state be achieved. In terms of illocutionary acts, they are directives. They can be independent or dependent. The verbal syntagm of independent mandative constructions is either in the imperative or in the subjunctive mood (e.g. close the window,...

Evidential and Causal Decision Theory are the leading contenders as theories of rational action, but both face fatal counterexamples. We present some new counterexamples, including one in which the optimal action is causally dominated. We also present a novel decision theory, Functional Decision Theory (fdt), which simultaneously solves both sets of counterexamples. Instead of considering which...

Previous studies have analyzed variable use of the infinitive versus the subjunctive in clauses following the preposition para (‘for, in order to’) in Spanish in terms of discourse, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors. However, no study has analyzed this phenomenon according to extralinguistic factors, nor determined which linguistic factors are the most significant predictors of this va...