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Philosophy

Essences and Essential Properties

Quick fact

Aristotle argued that the essence of a thing is what makes it what it is, but not all necessary properties are essential. For example, being a mammal is necessary for being a tiger in the actual world, but many philosophers argue it is not essential—whereas having a tiger's genome might be.

Why this is interesting

You know a tiger without stripes is still a tiger, but a tiger without DNA would not be. Yet what exactly gives a thing its 'tigerness'?