Full Idea
Most of the essential properties of things are quantitatively determinate properties.
Clarification
'Quantitatively determinate' means you can put numbers to them
Gist of Idea
Essential properties are usually quantitatively determinate
Source
Brian Ellis (The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism [2002], Ch.3)
Book Reference
Ellis,Brian: 'The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism' [Acumen 2002], p.56
A Reaction
This makes the essential nature of the world very much the province of science, which deals in quantities and equations. Essentialists must deal with mental events, as well as basic physics.