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Single Idea 14666

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 1. Essences of Objects ]

Full Idea

Socrates is a contingent being; his essence, however, is not. Properties, like propositions and possible worlds, are necessary beings. If Socrates had not existed, his essence would have been unexemplified, but not non-existent.

Gist of Idea

Socrates is a contingent being, but his essence is not; without Socrates, his essence is unexemplified

Source

Alvin Plantinga (Actualism and Possible Worlds [1976], 4)

Book Ref

Plantinga,Alvin: 'Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality' [OUP 2003], p.116

A Reaction

This is a distinctive Plantinga view, of which I can make little sense. I take it that Socrates used to have an essence. Being dead, the essence no longer exists, but when we talk about Socrates it is largely this essence to which we refer. OK?

Related Idea

Idea 14664 Necessary beings (numbers, properties, sets, propositions, states of affairs, God) exist in all possible worlds [Plantinga]

The 27 ideas with the same theme [idea that objects have essences, as well as other features]:

11199 Aristotelian essence underlies behaviour, or underlies definition, or is the source of existence [Aristotle, by Aquinas]
12304 Aristotelian essence is retained with identity through change, and bases our scientific knowledge [Aristotle, by Copi]
11294 Aristotle says changing, material things (and not just universals) have an essence [Aristotle, by Politis]
11298 Are essences actually universals? [Aristotle, by Politis]
11202 It is by having essence that things exist [Aquinas]
4828 The essence of a thing is what is required for it to exist or be conceived [Spinoza]
12498 Particular substances are coexisting ideas that seem to flow from a hidden essence [Locke]
12520 The best I can make of real essence is figure, size and connection of solid parts [Locke]
13771 Real essence is the constitution of the unknown parts of a body which produce its qualities [Locke]
12743 A true being must (unlike a chain) have united parts, with a substantial form as its subject [Leibniz]
13088 Subjects include predicates, so full understanding of subjects reveals all the predicates [Leibniz]
13077 Basic predicates give the complete concept, which then predicts all of the actions [Leibniz]
12908 Essences exist in the divine understanding [Leibniz]
13432 The essence of a circle is the equality of its radii [Leibniz]
24089 Essences are fictions needed for beings who represent things [Nietzsche]
15576 Heidegger seeks a non-traditional concept of essence as 'essential unfolding' [Heidegger, by Polt]
5443 Kripke and others have made essentialism once again respectable [Ellis]
14666 Socrates is a contingent being, but his essence is not; without Socrates, his essence is unexemplified [Plantinga]
11976 Aristotelian essentialism says essences are not relative to specification [Lewis]
14221 Serious essentialism says everything has essences, they're not things, and they ground necessities [Shalkowski]
11177 Can the essence of an object circularly involve itself, or involve another object? [Fine,K]
12241 Essences are real, about being, knowable, definable and classifiable [Oderberg, by PG]
15685 Essentialism is either natural to us, or an accident of our culture, or a necessary result of language [Gelman]
15684 Children's concepts include nonobvious features, like internal parts, functions and causes [Gelman]
15700 In India, upper-castes essentialize caste more than lower-castes do [Gelman]
11889 Essentialism must avoid both reduplication of essences, and multiple occupancy by essences [Mackie,P]
15110 An essence and what merely follow from it are distinct [Koslicki]