Essence

This Element examines the contemporary literature on essence in connection with the traditional question whether essence lies within or without our world. Section 1 understands this question in terms of a certain distinction, the distinction between active and latent facts. Section 2 steps back to investigate the connections between essence and other philosophical concepts. Section 3 brings the results of this investigation to bear on the traditional question, sketching an argument from the premise that essentialist facts are explained by the origins of things to the conclusion that such facts are active.-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title page 3 Copyright page 4 Essence 5 Contents 6 1 Status 7 1.1 Introducing Essence 7 1.2 Active Facts and Latent Facts 11 1.3 Essence: Active or Latent? 18 2 Connections 22 2.1 Identity and Definition 22 2.2 Modality 25 2.3 Explanation 33 2.4 Dependence 38 2.5 Knowledge 42 2.6 Neutrality 46 3 Origins 51 3.1 What Grounds Essences? 51 3.2 The Origins Proposal 52 3.3 The Circularity Objection 55 Principle (1): ‹essentialist, grounding› → essentialist 59 Principle (2) ‹grounding, essentialist› → essentialist 59 Principle (3): ‹grounding, essentialist› → grounding 60 Principle (4): ‹essentialist, grounding› → grounding 61 3.4 Origins and Activity 63 References 69 Acknowledgments 76 This Element examines the contemporary literature on essence in connection with the traditional question whether essence lies within or without our world. Section 1 understands this question in terms of a certain distinction, the distinction between active and latent facts. Section 2 steps back to investigate the connections between essence and other philosophical concepts. Section 3 brings the results of this investigation to bear on the traditional question, sketching an argument from the premise that essentialist facts are explained by the origins of things to the conclusion that such facts are active--back cover