Full Idea
We can almost never set out the essences of things, as they are in things. Instead, we work through their connection to some non-essential feature, and we seem to succeed well enough when we spell it out through the feature closest to the essence.
Gist of Idea
We only know essences through non-essential features, esp. those closest to the essence
Source
Francisco Suárez (Disputationes metaphysicae [1597], 40.4.16), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 23.5
Book Reference
Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.539
A Reaction
It is a common view that with geometrical figures we can actually experience the essence itself. So has science broken through, and discerned actual essences of things?