On General and Non‐General Abilities

Abstract

: I distinguish two ways an ability might be general: (i) an ability might be general in that its possession doesn ’ t entail the possession of an opportunity; (ii) an ability might be general in virtue of pertaining to a wide range of circumstances. I argue that these two types of generality – I refer to them with the terms ‘ general ’ and ‘ generic ’ , respectively – produce twoorthogonal distinctions among abilities. I show that the two types of generality are sometimes run together by those writing on free will and argue that both types of generality are relevant to understanding the modality of abilities.