Single Idea 14678

[catalogued under 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism]

Full Idea

By admitting possible worlds of unlimited variation and recombination, I simply abandon true metaphysical essentialism. By my lights, any property is attached to anything in some possible world or other. I am a closet radical anti-essentialist.

Gist of Idea

Any property is attached to anything in some possible world, so I am a radical anti-essentialist

Source

Nathan Salmon (The Logic of What Might Have Been [1989], II)

Book Reference

Salmon,Nathan: 'Metaphysics, Mathematics and Meaning' [OUP 2005], p.134


A Reaction

Salmon includes impossible worlds within his scheme of understanding. It strikes me that this is metaphysical system which tells us nothing about how things are: it is sort of 'logical idealist'. Later he talks of 'we essentialists'.