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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]
|