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Single Idea 11291

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 6. Essence as Unifier ]

Full Idea

The what-it-was-to-be-that-thing [to ti en einai, essence] is, for each thing, what it is taken to be [kath' hauto, in virtue of itself] per se.

Gist of Idea

A thing's essence is its intrinsic nature

Source

Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1029b13)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.178

A Reaction

[Translations is brackets from Vasilis Politis] Aristotle's other definition of essence is in terms of definition - Idea 10963 and Idea 11292.

Related Ideas

Idea 10963 A thing's essence is what is mentioned in its definition [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]

Idea 11292 Things have an essence if their explanation is a definition [Aristotle]

The 24 ideas with the same theme [essence is what unifies the parts of a thing]:

11238 Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis]
11291 A thing's essence is its intrinsic nature [Aristotle]
10964 Having an essence is the criterion of being a substance [Aristotle, by Lawson-Tancred]
12098 An essence causes both its own unity and its kind [Aristotle]
11208 A simple substance is its own essence [Aquinas]
9109 If essence and existence were two things, one could exist without the other, which is impossible [William of Ockham]
17187 Essence gives existence and conception to things, and is inseparable from them [Spinoza]
12510 Not all identity is unity of substance [Locke]
11155 Essence is the very being of any thing, whereby it is what it is [Locke]
12706 Bodies need a soul (or something like it) to avoid being mere phenomena [Leibniz]
12753 A substantial bond of powers is needed to unite composites, in addition to monads [Leibniz]
15637 Essence is the essential self-positing unity of immediacy and mediation [Hegel]
15262 In logic the nature of a kind, substance or individual is the essence which is inseparable from what it is [Harré/Madden]
12137 De re essentialism standardly says all possible objects identical with a have a's essential properties [Brody]
12082 If unity is a matter of degree, then essence may also be a matter of degree [Witt]
3350 Could a horse lose the essential property of being a horse, and yet continue to exist? [Benardete,JA]
14222 Essences are what it is to be that (kind of) thing - in fact, they are the thing's identity [Shalkowski]
13804 A property is essential iff the object would not exist if it lacked that property [Forbes,G]
13805 Properties are trivially essential if they are not grounded in a thing's specific nature [Forbes,G]
11161 Essentially having a property is naturally expressed as 'the property it must have to be what it is' [Fine,K]
15065 What it is is fixed prior to existence or the object's worldly features [Fine,K]
12240 Essentialism is the main account of the unity of objects [Oderberg]
13797 The loss of an essential property means the end of an existence [Elder]
14191 Deep essentialists say essences constrain how things could change; modal profiles fix natures [Paul,LA]