Dispositions are essential in the description, the understanding, the explanation and the prediction of events. We say that sugar and salt are soluble. We also say that red wine stains unlike beer and that thin rubber is flexible and elastic while steel is stiff and sturdy. We normally avoid walking on a hot tin roof, and treat poisonous and inflammable things with care. We also know that most people get hot when they eat chilli peppers, and we know that all people will die sooner or later. Although dispositions are constantly used, the true nature and the proper use of dispositions are still controversial topics. The aim of our paper is twofold. First, we present our view on dispositions. We aim for a realist account that respects the distinction between categorical and dispositional properties and, thus, avoids reduction of dispositions to the categorical properties that realises them, or the manifestations they bring about. We believe that our view is without metaphysical double vision: we will show that dispositions are more than ethereal states or some kind of occult powers, since we will clearly determine what dispositional properties are by defining dispositions in causal terms immediately. Our second aim is to apply our definition of dispositions in a theory of explanations.