Single Idea 11861

[catalogued under 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 3. Individual Essences]

Full Idea

Let us be realistic, and forget about individual or particularized essences.

Gist of Idea

We can forget about individual or particularized essences

Source

David Wiggins (Sameness and Substance Renewed [2001], 4.2)

Book Reference

Wiggins,David: 'Sameness and Substance Renewed' [CUP 2001], p.109


A Reaction

This is the rather weird position you reach if you follow Wiggins's 'modest' essentialism, deriving from a thing merely falling under a sortal, or into a category. What is a natural kind, if its members don't each have a shared essence?