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Single Idea 11189

[from 'Essential Attribution' by Ruth Barcan Marcus, in 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism ]

Full Idea

Being gold or being a man is not accidental. ..Such essences are dispositional properties of a very special kind: if an object had such a property and ceased to have it, it would have ceased to exist or have changed (as if gold is transmuted to lead).

Gist of Idea

Dispositional essences are special, as if an object loses them they cease to exist

Source

Ruth Barcan Marcus (Essential Attribution [1971], p.202)

Book Reference

-: 'Nous' [-], p.202


A Reaction

Ruth Marcus is an important founder of modern scientific essentialism, by not only proposing the notion we call rigid designation, but by explicitly defending the essential identities that seem to emerge from modal logic.