more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 11895

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 5. Essence as Kind ]

Full Idea

Brody bases sortal essentialism on the notion of a property that an individual must possess throughout its existence if it possesses it at any time in its existence. ...'Once an F, always an F'. ...Being a parrot is not a temporary occupation.

Gist of Idea

A sortal essence is a property which once possessed always possessed

Source

report of Baruch Brody (Identity and Essence [1980]) by Penelope Mackie - How Things Might Have Been 7.1

Book Ref

Mackie,Penelope: 'How Things Might Have Been' [OUP 2006], p.119


A Reaction

Hm. Would being less than fifty metres tall qualify as a sortal essence, for a giraffe or a uranium rod? If there is one thing an essential property should be, it is important. How do we assess importance? By explanatory power! Watch this space.


The 27 ideas with the same theme [essence as belonging to a particular natural kind]:

The Aristotelian view is that the essential properties are those that sort an object [Aristotle, by Marcus (Barcan)]
Essence is something in common between the natures which sort things into categories [Aquinas]
Only natural kinds and their members have real essences [Suárez, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
Particulars contain universal things [Hobbes]
The less rational view of essences is that they are moulds for kinds of natural thing [Locke]
Even real essence depends on a sort, since it is sorts which have the properties [Locke]
If every sort has its real essence, one horse, being many sorts, will have many essences [Locke]
The sense of anything contingent has a purely apprehensible essence or Eidos [Husserl]
Essence is expressed by grammar [Wittgenstein]
Putnam bases essences on 'same kind', but same kinds may not share properties [Mackie,P on Putnam]
A real essence is a kind's distinctive properties [Ellis]
Atomic number 79 is part of the nature of the gold we know [Kripke]
Sortals basically apply to individuals [Ayers]
Kind essences are the categorical bases of a thing's causal powers [Bhaskar, by Chakravartty]
A sortal essence is a property which once possessed always possessed [Brody, by Mackie,P]
Maybe essential properties are those which determine a natural kind? [Brody]
Natural kinds are well suited to be the sortals which fix substances [Wiggins]
Essential properties depend on a category, and perhaps also on particular facts [Forbes,G]
Essentialism says categories have a true hidden nature which gives an object its identity [Gelman]
Sortals are needed for determining essence - the thing must be categorised first [Gelman]
Kind (unlike individual) essentialism assumes preexisting natural categories [Gelman]
Objects have their essential properties because of the kind of objects they are [Simons]
Essential kinds may be too specific to provide ontological categories [Westerhoff]
Unlike Hesperus=Phosophorus, water=H2O needs further premisses before it is necessary [Mackie,P]
Why are any sortals essential, and why are only some of them essential? [Mackie,P]
A kind essence is the necessary and sufficient properties for membership of a class [Chakravartty]
'Sortal essentialism' says being a particular kind is what is essential [Rami]