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Full Idea
The dispositional essentialist can argue that what happens in laboratory conditions is that, by controlling external influences, we effectively 'unmask' the relevant dispositions, and thus observe the regularities to which those dispositions give rise.
Gist of Idea
Maybe an experiment unmasks an essential disposition, and reveals its regularities
Source
Richard Corry (Dispositional Essentialism Grounds Laws of Nature? [2010], 5)
Book Ref
-: 'Australasian Journal of Philosophy' [-], p.8
A Reaction
That seems to me to be exactly right, though Corry dislikes it, and even suggests that dispositional essentialist might not like it.