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Full Idea
Since essences cause the other necessary features of a thing, so definitions, as the linguistic correlates of essences, explain, together with other axioms, the propositions describing those necessary features.
Gist of Idea
Essences cause necessary features, and definitions describe those necessary features
Source
Kathrin Koslicki (Essence, Necessity and Explanation [2012], 13.3.1)
Book Ref
'Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics', ed/tr. Tahko,Tuomas [CUP 2012], p.200
A Reaction
This is nice and clear. Definitions are NOT essences - they are the linguistic correlates of essences, and mirror those essences. The necessary features are not the only things needing explanation. That picture is too passive.
Related Idea
Idea 15111 In demonstration, the explanatory order must mirror the causal order of the phenomena [Koslicki]
| 11389 | Socrates sought essences, which are the basis of formal logic [Socrates, by Aristotle] |
| 12080 | Essence is not all the necessary properties, since these extend beyond the definition [Aristotle, by Witt] |
| 11153 | A definition is an account of a what-it-was-to-be-that-thing [Aristotle] |
| 12382 | What it is and why it is are the same; screening defines and explains an eclipse [Aristotle] |
| 12285 | The definition is peculiar to one thing, not common to many [Aristotle] |
| 16797 | Maybe Locke described the real essence of a person [Locke, by Pasnau] |
| 11216 | If definitions aim at different ideals, then defining essence is not a unitary activity [Gupta] |
| 11171 | Defining a term and giving the essence of an object don't just resemble - they are the same [Fine,K] |
| 11178 | The essence or definition of an essence involves either a class of properties or a class of propositions [Fine,K] |
| 16539 | A definition of a circle will show what it is, and show its generating principle [Lowe] |
| 16540 | Defining an ellipse by conic sections reveals necessities, but not the essence of an ellipse [Lowe] |
| 16548 | An essence is what an entity is, revealed by a real definition; this is not an entity in its own right [Lowe] |
| 19291 | A canonical defintion specifies the type of thing, and what distinguish this specimen [Hale] |
| 15116 | Essences cause necessary features, and definitions describe those necessary features [Koslicki] |