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Full Idea
There will be demonstrated properties at the edge of the system, so to speak. They will be explained in terms of the essential properties of the basic entities and principles of the science, but will themselves not be explanatory of further properties.
Gist of Idea
Some peripheral properties are explained by essential ones, but don't themselves explain properties
Source
Joan Kung (Aristotle on Essence and Explanation [1977], II)
Book Ref
-: 'Philosophical Studies' [-], p.366
A Reaction
This is an important line of thought which needs clarification. We can't glibly say that essences are what explain the other properties. Some properties do more than others to explain subsequent dependent properties.
11992 | Aristotelian essences underlie a thing's existence, explain it, and must belong to it [Kung] |
11995 | Some peripheral properties are explained by essential ones, but don't themselves explain properties [Kung] |
11996 | Some non-essential properties may explain more than essential-but-peripheral ones do [Kung] |
11993 | Jones may cease to exist without some simple property, but that doesn't make it essential [Kung] |
11997 | A property may belong essentially to one thing and contingently to another [Kung] |