Abstract
Kit Fine (Philos Perspect 8:1–16, 1994) famously objected against the idea that essence can be successfully analyzed in terms of de re necessity. In response, I want to explore a novel, interesting, but controversial modal account of essence in terms of intrinsicality and grounding. In the first section, I will single out two theoretical requirements that any essentialist theory should meet—the essentialist desideratum and the essentialist challenge—in order to clarify Fine’s objections. In the second section, I will assess Denby’s improved modal account, which appeals to the notion of intrinsicality, and argue that it is untenable. In the third section, I will explain how, when combined with a modal-existential criterion, a hyperintensional account of intrinsicality—in the same vein as Bader (J Philos 110(10):525–563, 2013) and Rosen (in: Hale and Hoffman (eds) Modality: Metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, Oxford, OUP, 2010)—can help successfully address Fine’s counterexamples. In the fourth section, I will evaluate how this novel analysis of essence stands with respect to sortal, origin, and natural kinds essentialism and discuss potential objections and difficulties.
Highlights
In his influential paper Essence and Modality (1994) Kit Fine argues that, as they stand, modal analyses of essence—both the conditional and the unconditional variants (Correia 2007)—bring about controversial and counterintuitive results
In order to see why, let us consider the conditional analysis for the present discussion: counterexamples. Remember that (CMA): x is essentially F def. necessarily, if x exists, x is F
What (CMA) states is that the essential properties of x just are—or, equivalently, are nothing over and above—the properties that x necessarily instantiates if x exists
Summary
In his influential paper Essence and Modality (1994) Kit Fine argues that, as they stand, modal analyses of essence—both the conditional and the unconditional variants (Correia 2007)—bring about controversial and counterintuitive results. Given that modal terms are required but not sufficient to meet the essentialist desideratum, the purpose of the notion of intrinsicality is to fill this theoretical gap so as to obtain both a necessary and sufficient condition to accurately single out essential properties.8 let me stress that improving (CMA) with a condition of intrinsicality should not be seen as an ad hoc strategy—quite the opposite—as it takes us closer to the innermost nature of the entities considered.
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