more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Many of the kinds we theorize about and experiment on today simply do not have essences. We can distinguish 'essence kinds', such as electrons, and 'cluster kinds', such as biological species.
Gist of Idea
Some kinds, such as electrons, have essences, but 'cluster kinds' do not
Source
Anjan Chakravarrty (Inessential Aristotle: Powers without Essences [2012], 2)
A Reaction
This is an important point for essentialists. He offers a strict criterion, in Idea 15145, for mind membership, but we might allow species to have essences by just relaxing the criteria a bit, and acknowledging some vagueness, especially over time.
Related Idea
Idea 15147 Cluster kinds are explained simply by sharing some properties, not by an 'essence' [Chakravartty]
| 15660 | Logos is the source of everything, and my theories separate and explain each nature [Heraclitus] |
| 15993 | If we observe total regularity, there must be some unknown law and relationships controlling it [Locke] |
| 11191 | The hidden structure of a natural kind determines membership in all possible worlds [Putnam] |
| 12680 | Natural kind structures go right down to the bottom level [Ellis] |
| 5471 | Essentialism says natural kinds are fundamental to nature, and determine the laws [Ellis] |
| 13574 | Natural kinds are distinguished by resting on essences [Ellis] |
| 15150 | The properties of an electron can't be explained just as 'clustering' [Chakravartty on Boyd] |
| 15149 | Properties cluster together, either because of intrinsic relations, or because of an underlying process [Boyd, by Chakravartty] |
| 14344 | Natural kinds, such as electrons, all behave the same way because we divide them by dispositions [Mumford] |
| 14957 | There is nothing more to a natural kind than a real pattern in nature [Ladyman/Ross] |
| 15146 | Some kinds, such as electrons, have essences, but 'cluster kinds' do not [Chakravartty] |
| 13287 | Concepts for species are either intrinsic structure, or relations like breeding or ancestry [Koslicki] |
| 15641 | Kinds are fixed by the essential properties of things - the properties that make it that kind of thing [Eagle] |