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Single Idea 19294
[filed under theme 10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 6. Necessity from Essence
]
Full Idea
If the essentialist theory of necessity is to be adequate, it must be able to explain how the existence of certain objects - such as the natural numbers - can itself be absolutely necessary.
Gist of Idea
If necessity derives from essences, how do we explain the necessary existence of essences?
Source
Bob Hale (Necessary Beings [2013], 07.1)
Book Ref
Hale,Bob: 'Necessary Beings' [OUP 2013], p.165
A Reaction
Hale and his neo-logicist pals think that numbers are 'objects', and they necessarily exist, so he obviously has a problem. I don't see any alternative for essentialists to treating the existing (and possible) natures as brute facts.
The
17 ideas
with the same theme
[necessity comes from the essence of actual things]:
22505
|
The two right angles of a triangle necessitate that a quadrilateral has four
[Aristotle]
|
12612
|
Some things have external causes of their necessity; others (the simple) generate necessities
[Aristotle]
|
15108
|
Aristotle's says necessary truths are distinct and derive from essential truths
[Aristotle, by Koslicki]
|
17182
|
Necessity is in reference to essence or to cause
[Spinoza]
|
5447
|
Metaphysical necessities are true in virtue of the essences of things
[Ellis]
|
13570
|
Individual essences necessitate that individual; natural kind essences necessitate kind membership
[Ellis]
|
11162
|
Socrates is necessarily distinct from the Eiffel Tower, but that is not part of his essence
[Fine,K]
|
11168
|
Metaphysical necessities are true in virtue of the nature of all objects
[Fine,K]
|
15070
|
It is the nature of Socrates to be a man, so necessarily he is a man
[Fine,K]
|
5449
|
Essentialism is often identified with belief in 'de re' necessary truths
[Mautner]
|
18502
|
If basic physics has natures, then why not reality itself? That would then found the deepest necessities
[Heil]
|
16543
|
If an essence implies p, then p is an essential truth, and hence metaphysically necessary
[Lowe]
|
16544
|
Metaphysical necessity is either an essential truth, or rests on essential truths
[Lowe]
|
19276
|
The big challenge for essentialist views of modality is things having necessary existence
[Hale]
|
19293
|
Essentialism doesn't explain necessity reductively; it explains all necessities in terms of a few basic natures
[Hale]
|
19294
|
If necessity derives from essences, how do we explain the necessary existence of essences?
[Hale]
|
14371
|
We can base counterfactuals on powers, not possible worlds, and hence define necessity
[Jacobs]
|