ABSTRACT
A number of philosophers known for defending the existence of real causal powers have suggested of late that the rejection of Hume's metaphysics has a bearing upon the issue of efficacy in the domain of the social that is in relation to persons, collectivities and/or social structures. Human beings do have causal powers. While most powers are not agential powers, the powers of agents are no less powers-like for being the kinds of powers that they are, borne by the kind of substance that bears them. Rom Harre and E. H. Madden combined a Reid-style argument for the existence of real causal powers with a commitment to Lockean real essences. Bearers of causal powers, Harre and Madden argued, do not simply enter into observable sequences of events. According to Gottfried Leibniz, the things that exist in the world have powers, which he encouraged to think of as causal powers.
