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Single Idea 5084
[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 8. Essence as Explanatory
]
Full Idea
The nature of a thing is a certain principle and cause of change and stability in the thing.
Gist of Idea
A thing's nature is what causes its changes and stability
Source
Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 192b20)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Physics', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1996], p.33
A Reaction
A helpful contribution to the discussion, as most thinkers just boggle when asked to specify the core of something's identity. Aristotle's proposal links identity to causation, which is very appealing to a physical account of all of reality. Cf 5086.
Related Idea
Idea 5086
The nature of a thing is its end and purpose [Aristotle]
The
21 ideas
with the same theme
[essence is what intrinsically explains a thing]:
12361
|
Primary substances are ontological in 'Categories', and explanatory in 'Metaphysics'
[Aristotle, by Wedin]
|
11244
|
Metaphysics is the science of ultimate explanation, or of pure existence, or of primary existence
[Aristotle, by Politis]
|
16972
|
The four explanations are the main aspects of a thing's nature
[Aristotle, by Moravcsik]
|
5084
|
A thing's nature is what causes its changes and stability
[Aristotle]
|
11994
|
Aristotelian essences are properties mentioned at the starting point of a science
[Aristotle, by Kung]
|
17184
|
All natures of things produce some effect
[Spinoza]
|
16787
|
Explanatory essence won't do, because it won't distinguish the accidental from the essential
[Locke, by Pasnau]
|
5057
|
If you fully understand a subject and its qualities, you see how the second derive from the first
[Leibniz]
|
10937
|
Essential properties are the 'deepest' ones which explain the others
[Copi, by Rami]
|
11992
|
Aristotelian essences underlie a thing's existence, explain it, and must belong to it
[Kung]
|
12144
|
Essentialism is justified if the essential properties of things explain their other properties
[Brody]
|
11871
|
Essences are not explanations, but individuations
[Wiggins]
|
17564
|
The essence of a star includes the released binding energy which keeps it from collapse
[Inwagen]
|
12089
|
Essences mainly explain the existence of unified substance
[Witt]
|
17390
|
Natural kinds don't need essentialism to be explanatory
[Dupré]
|
10935
|
An essential property of something must be bound up with what it is to be that thing
[Fine,K, by Rami]
|
16542
|
Explanation can't give an account of essence, because it is too multi-faceted
[Lowe]
|
13921
|
All things must have an essence (a 'what it is'), or we would be unable to think about them
[Lowe]
|
12247
|
Essence is not explanatory but constitutive
[Oderberg]
|
15181
|
Being a deepest explanatory feature is an actual, not a modal property
[Sidelle]
|
11906
|
The Kripke and Putnam view of kinds makes them explanatorily basic, but has modal implications
[Mackie,P]
|