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Single Idea 12241
[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 1. Essences of Objects
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Full Idea
Real essences are objectively real, they concern being, they are knowable, they are definable, and they are classifiable.
Gist of Idea
Essences are real, about being, knowable, definable and classifiable
Source
report of David S. Oderberg (Real Essentialism [2007], 1.4) by PG - Db (ideas)
Book Ref
Oderberg,David S.: 'Real Essentialism' [Routledge 2009], p.18
A Reaction
This is a lovely summary (spread over two pages) of what essentialism is all about. It might be added that they are about unity and identity. The fact that they are intrinsically classifiable seems to mislead some people into a confused view.
The
22 ideas
from 'Real Essentialism'
12234
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Realism about possible worlds is circular, since it needs a criterion of 'possible'
[Oderberg]
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12235
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Necessity of identity seems trivial, because it leaves out the real essence
[Oderberg]
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12237
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Rigid designation has at least three essentialist presuppositions
[Oderberg]
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12236
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Leibniz's Law is an essentialist truth
[Oderberg]
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12238
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The Aristotelian view is that numbers depend on (and are abstracted from) other things
[Oderberg]
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12240
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Essentialism is the main account of the unity of objects
[Oderberg]
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12239
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The real essentialist is not merely a scientist
[Oderberg]
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12243
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The reductionism found in scientific essentialism is mistaken
[Oderberg]
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12242
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Definition distinguishes one kind from another, and individuation picks out members of the kind
[Oderberg]
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12241
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Essences are real, about being, knowable, definable and classifiable
[Oderberg, by PG]
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12244
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Nominalism is consistent with individual but not with universal essences
[Oderberg]
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12245
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Essence is the source of a thing's characteristic behaviour
[Oderberg]
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12246
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What makes Parmenidean reality a One rather than a Many?
[Oderberg]
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12247
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Essence is not explanatory but constitutive
[Oderberg]
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12249
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'Animal' is a genus and 'rational' is a specific difference
[Oderberg]
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12250
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Bodies have act and potency, the latter explaining new kinds of existence
[Oderberg]
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12252
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Empiricists gave up 'substance', as unknowable substratum, or reducible to a bundle
[Oderberg]
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12253
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If tropes are in space and time, in what sense are they abstract?
[Oderberg]
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12254
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Being is substantial/accidental, complete/incomplete, necessary/contingent, possible, relative, intrinsic..
[Oderberg]
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12256
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We need to distinguish the essential from the non-essential powers
[Oderberg]
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12257
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Could we replace essence with collections of powers?
[Oderberg]
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12258
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Properties are not part of an essence, but they flow from it
[Oderberg]
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