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Single Idea 16552

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences ]

Full Idea

If knowledge of essence were by acquaintance of a special kind of entity, we would doubt our ability to grasp the essence of things. For what faculty could be involved in this special kind of acquaintance?

Gist of Idea

If we must know some entity to know an essence, we lack a faculty to do that

Source

E.J. Lowe (What is the Source of Knowledge of Modal Truths? [2013], 7)

Book Ref

-: 'Mind' [-], p.28

A Reaction

This is Lockean empirical scepticism about essences, but I take the view that sometimes you can be acquainted with an essence, but more often you correctly infer it from you acquaintance - and this is just what scientists do.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [how we might know the essence of an object]:

12092 Aristotle claims that the individual is epistemologically prior to the universal [Aristotle, by Witt]
12090 Actual knowledge is of the individual, and potential knowledge of the universal [Aristotle, by Witt]
16742 We only know essences through non-essential features, esp. those closest to the essence [Suárez]
4869 Experience does not teach us any essences of things [Spinoza]
12525 The essence of a triangle is simple; presumably substance essences are similar [Locke]
13431 A space between three lines is both the nominal and real essence of a triangle, the source of its properties [Locke]
13423 The schools recognised that they don't really know essences, because they couldn't coin names for them [Locke]
12694 Essence is the distinct thinkability of anything [Leibniz]
15613 Real cognition grasps a thing from within itself, and is not satisfied with mere predicates [Hegel]
11966 If there are essential properties, how do you find out what they are? [Chisholm]
11182 If essences are objects with only essential properties, they are elusive in possible worlds [Marcus (Barcan)]
13971 Kripke claims that some properties, only knowable posteriori, are known a priori to be essential [Kripke, by Soames]
12100 An essence is the necessary properties, derived from an intuitive identity, in origin, type and material [Kripke, by Witt]
13954 The difficulty in essentialism is deciding the grounds for rating an attribute as essential [Cartwright,R]
16552 If we must know some entity to know an essence, we lack a faculty to do that [Lowe]
13922 Knowing an essence is just knowing what the thing is, not knowing some further thing [Lowe]
12248 How can we show that a universally possessed property is an essential property? [Mumford]
15679 Essentialism comes from the cognitive need to categorise [Gelman]
15698 We found no evidence that mothers teach essentialism to their children [Gelman]