Full Idea
If the essentialist theory of necessity is to be adequate, it must be able to explain how the existence of certain objects - such as the natural numbers - can itself be absolutely necessary.
Gist of Idea
If necessity derives from essences, how do we explain the necessary existence of essences?
Source
Bob Hale (Necessary Beings [2013], 07.1)
Book Reference
Hale,Bob: 'Necessary Beings' [OUP 2013], p.165
A Reaction
Hale and his neo-logicist pals think that numbers are 'objects', and they necessarily exist, so he obviously has a problem. I don't see any alternative for essentialists to treating the existing (and possible) natures as brute facts.