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Single Idea 9787

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / d. Knowing essences ]

Full Idea

It would be strange for a natural scientist to know what the sun and the moon are, but to be completely ignorant about their necessary attributes.

Gist of Idea

Scientists must know the essential attributes of the things they study

Source

Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 193b27)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Physics', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1996], p.36

A Reaction

This nicely captures the common sense idea of essentialism - that we must know the essential features of things, and ignore the incidental ones (like sunspots, or phases of the moon).

The 15 ideas with the same theme [whether we can know essences, and if so, how]:

9787 Scientists must know the essential attributes of the things they study [Aristotle]
16745 No one even knows the nature and properties of a fly - why it has that colour, or so many feet [Bacon,R]
7713 We identify substances by supposing that groups of sensations arise from an essence [Locke]
12545 Other spirits may exceed us in knowledge, by knowing the inward constitution of things [Locke]
17968 By digging deeper into the axioms we approach the essence of sciences, and unity of knowedge [Hilbert]
12310 Real essences are scientifically knowable, but so are non-essential properties [Copi]
6612 Without general principles, we couldn't predict the behaviour of dispositional properties [Ellis]
5487 Essentialism requires a clear separation of semantics, epistemology and ontology [Ellis]
8553 It looks as if the immutability of the powers of a property imply essentiality [Shoemaker]
4965 Science searches basic structures in search of essences [Kripke]
21219 Find the essence by varying an object, to see what remains invariable [Velarde-Mayol]
14307 Some dispositions are so far unknown, until we learn how to manifest them [Mumford]
9437 To distinguish accidental from essential properties, we must include possible members of kinds [Mumford]
15704 Essentialism starts from richly structured categories, leading to a search for underlying properties [Gelman]
6789 If flame colour is characteristic of a metal, that is an empirical claim needing justification [Bird]