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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Reference and Essence (1st edn)' and 'Introduction to Philosophical Papers II'

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9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 7. Essence and Necessity / a. Essence as necessary properties

18888	Essentialism says some properties must be possessed, if a thing is to exist [Salmon,N]
	Full Idea: The metaphysical doctrine of essentialism says that certain properties of things are properties that those things could not fail to have, except by not existing.
	From: Nathan Salmon (Reference and Essence (1st edn) [1981], 3.8.2)
	A reaction: A bad account of essentialism, and a long way from Aristotle. It arises from the logicians' tendency to fix objects entirely in terms of a 'flat' list of predicates (called 'properties'!), which ignore structure, constitution, history etc.