On Nov 12, 2013, at 6:01 PM, michael perelman <michael.perelman3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> German scientists were already working on the science of labor power.
> Their intention was to discover ways to reduce the toll of the workplace
> and to increase productivity. W. S. Jevons took up this research & was
> reprimanded for it because labor was only supposed to be the sacrifice of
> labor.
>
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Despite the work of Newton and Hume, dispositions and the issues of possibility/actuality were still considered rather valid by the close readers of Aristotle in Marx’ era; Spinoza and his followers being a prime example. The term dispositions can even be found in several of the writings of Ricardo although it seems he had no time/patience for ontology. So tracing the usage of the term from Ricardo and Malthus to the Ricardian socialists might be the clue for the detectives.
There is a serious revival of dispositional ontologies amongst several English and Australian philosophers.
E.