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Full Idea
According to essentialists, the world is wholly structured at the most fundamental level into natural kinds, and the laws of nature are all determined by those kinds.
Gist of Idea
Essentialism says natural kinds are fundamental to nature, and determine the laws
Source
Brian Ellis (The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism [2002], Ch.5)
Book Ref
Ellis,Brian: 'The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism' [Acumen 2002], p.82
A Reaction
I am a fan of this view, despite being cautious about claims that natural kinds have necessary identity. Why are the essences active? That is the old Greek puzzle about the origin of movement. And why are natural kinds stable?
| 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] |