more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
An individual essence is a profile that is necessary and sufficient for some particular thing.
Gist of Idea
An individual essence is a necessary and sufficient profile for a thing
Source
John Hawthorne (Causal Structuralism [2001], Intro)
Book Ref
Hawthorne,John: 'Metaphysical Essays' [OUP 2002], p.212
A Reaction
By 'for' he presumably means for the thing to have an existence and a distinct identity. If it retained its identity, but didn't function any more, would that be loss of essence?
| 15123 | Is the causal profile of a property its essence? [Hawthorne] |
| 15122 | Could two different properties have the same causal profile? [Hawthorne] |
| 15121 | An individual essence is a necessary and sufficient profile for a thing [Hawthorne] |
| 15124 | If properties are more than their powers, we could have two properties with the same power [Hawthorne] |
| 15126 | Maybe scientific causation is just generalisation about the patterns [Hawthorne] |
| 15127 | A categorical basis could hardly explain a disposition if it had no powers of its own [Hawthorne] |
| 15128 | We can treat the structure/form of the world differently from the nodes/matter of the world [Hawthorne] |
| 15125 | We only know the mathematical laws, but not much else [Hawthorne] |