Single Idea 14633

[catalogued under 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 9. Essence and Properties]

Full Idea

On a friendly reading of Quine, there is nothing to make the difference between a table's being contingently plastic and its being essentially plastic.

Gist of Idea

How do we tell a table's being contingently plastic from its being essentially plastic?

Source

Frank Jackson (Possible Worlds and Necessary A Posteriori [2010], 5)

Book Reference

'Modality', ed/tr. Hale,B/Hoffman,A [OUP 2010], p.261


A Reaction

This is, of course, the dreaded modern usage of 'essential' to just mean 'necessary' and nothing more. In my view, there may be a big problem with knowing whether a problem is necessary, but knowing whether it is essential is much easier.