ESSENTIAL VS

ACCIDENTAL
PROPERTIES
REVIEW
TABLE OF CONTENT

• 1. The Modal Characterization of the Essential/Accidental Property Distinction

• 2. Other Ways of Characterizing the Essential/Accidental Property Distinction
• 3. Four Ways of Characterizing Essentialism
• 4. Some Varieties of Essentialism
• 5. Suspicions about Essentialism
• 6. The Epistemology of Essentialist Claims
• 7. Essentialist Claims in Arguments for Non-identities
INTRODUCTION

• An accidental property (also known as accidental attribute) is a characteristic of

something that is not necessary to its essence, and a deviation of that characteristic does
not affect its essence.
• An essential property is a property that is necessary to something for it to be what it is
and without it isn’t what it is. It is the most fundamental characteristic of something.
1. THE MODAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE
ESSENTIAL/ACCIDENTAL PROPERTY DISTINCTION

• The basic model characterization states:

• If P is an essential characteristic to an object O, P must be a necessary characteristic to O,

whereas if P is an accidental characteristic of object O it is not necessary characteristic to O.

• Thus using the worlds approach that philosophers often use, the object having an essential
characteristic will have it in all worlds, but the accidental characteristic will change.
PROBLEMS

• Despite the fact that the fundamental thought behind the modular characterization is
clear enough some problems are instantly visible
• For the object to have properties it must exist, and according to the modal
characterization all of these are accidental, since the object can exist but not have any of
these characteristics
• Thus the modal characterization is slightly modified to:
• If P is an essential characteristic to an object O, P must be a necessary characteristic to O if
object O exists, whereas if P is an accidental characteristic of object O it is not necessary
characteristic to O if O exists yet.
NEW PROBLEMS

• Existence becomes an essential property

• An object cannot lack existence while it exist
• For some only GOD can have a necessary existence and as such for all other objects the
existence is an accidental characteristic
• in addition to various notions of epistemic possibility, philosophers have been concerned
with three particular notions of possibility that are generally regarded as non-
epistemic: logical possibility, metaphysical possibility, and physical possibility
CLOSE APPROACH

• A close but different approach to understand the modal characterization is replacing the
word lack in the notion with the world lose
• The notion becomes:
• If P is an essential characteristic to an object O, O cannot lose the property P, whereas if P is
an accidental characteristic of object, O can lose the property P

• However linking the two is not true, since for example one cannot lose the property of
having Christmas with his family, but it is not a necessary property.
2. OTHER WAYS OF CHARACTERIZING THE
ESSENTIAL/ACCIDENTAL PROPERTY DISTINCTION
• Berit Brogaard and Joe Salerno (2007a, 2007b, 2013):
• A property P is essential for object O if:
• 1. It is necessary for O to have P if O exists
• 2. if no object had P, then O would not exist

• Nathan Wildman (2013) and Sam Cowling (2013)

• A property P is essential for object O if:
• 1. It is necessary for O to have P if O exists
• 2. P is a sparse Property
• This is because sparse properties are somehow more fundamental than abundant property
CONTINUED…

• David Denby (2014) defends a similar version of the modal characterization

• P is an essential property of an object o just in case
• 1. It is necessary that o has P if o exists, and
• 2. P is an intrinsic property.

• Roughly, an intrinsic property is a property that an object possesses in isolation, while an

extrinsic property is a property that an object possesses only in relation to other objects.
3. FOUR WAYS OF CHARACTERIZING ESSENTIALISM

• There are at least four ways to characterize essentialism

• To better understand it is important to consider the two most extremes essentialism:
• Minimal essentialism
• Maximal essentialism

• Maximum Essentialism
• All properties of an object are essential

• Minimal Essentialism
• The only essential properties are what we think are trivial properties, such as being a dog or a
human
THE FOUR POINTS OF VIEW

• Should maximal and minimal essentialism even be considered

• 1. Maximal:Yes, Minimal: No.
• 2. Maximal:Yes, Minimal:Yes
• 3. Maximal: No, Minimal:Yes
• 4. Maximal: No, Minimal: No