“Essence and Modality”
E949476
“Essence and Modality” is a seminal philosophical work by Kit Fine that develops an influential account of metaphysical essence and its relationship to modal notions like necessity and possibility.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| “Essence and Modality” canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11850450 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: “Essence and Modality” Context triple: [Kit Fine, hasWritten, “Essence and Modality”]
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A.
Leibniz's metaphysics of modality
Leibniz's metaphysics of modality is his philosophical account of possibility, necessity, and contingency grounded in the notion of possible worlds and the principle that God actualizes the best of all compossible worlds.
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B.
Ontology, Identity, and Modality
Ontology, Identity, and Modality is a collection of influential essays by philosopher Peter van Inwagen that explores fundamental issues in metaphysics, including existence, identity, and possibility.
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C.
The Logical Basis of Metaphysics
The Logical Basis of Metaphysics is a major philosophical work by Michael Dummett that develops his influential views on realism, anti-realism, and the role of language in metaphysical debates.
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D.
Possible Worlds and Other Essays
Possible Worlds and Other Essays is a collection of influential scientific and philosophical essays by geneticist and evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane, exploring topics in biology, evolution, and the nature of science.
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E.
An Essay in Modal Logic
An Essay in Modal Logic is a foundational philosophical work by G. H. von Wright that systematically develops the principles and systems of modal logic.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: “Essence and Modality” Target entity description: “Essence and Modality” is a seminal philosophical work by Kit Fine that develops an influential account of metaphysical essence and its relationship to modal notions like necessity and possibility.
-
A.
Leibniz's metaphysics of modality
Leibniz's metaphysics of modality is his philosophical account of possibility, necessity, and contingency grounded in the notion of possible worlds and the principle that God actualizes the best of all compossible worlds.
-
B.
Ontology, Identity, and Modality
Ontology, Identity, and Modality is a collection of influential essays by philosopher Peter van Inwagen that explores fundamental issues in metaphysics, including existence, identity, and possibility.
-
C.
The Logical Basis of Metaphysics
The Logical Basis of Metaphysics is a major philosophical work by Michael Dummett that develops his influential views on realism, anti-realism, and the role of language in metaphysical debates.
-
D.
Possible Worlds and Other Essays
Possible Worlds and Other Essays is a collection of influential scientific and philosophical essays by geneticist and evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane, exploring topics in biology, evolution, and the nature of science.
-
E.
An Essay in Modal Logic
An Essay in Modal Logic is a foundational philosophical work by G. H. von Wright that systematically develops the principles and systems of modal logic.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book chapter
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ |
| addresses |
distinction between de re and de dicto modality
ⓘ
how essence underwrites metaphysical necessity ⓘ limits of possible‑worlds semantics for capturing essence ⓘ logical representation of essentialist claims ⓘ relationship between essential properties and necessary properties ⓘ |
| author | Kit Fine NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| contribution |
argues that metaphysical explanation is grounded in essence
ⓘ
develops a formal framework for essentialist reasoning ⓘ distinguishes between essence and necessity ⓘ influenced contemporary debates on metaphysical grounding ⓘ revived interest in Aristotelian notions of essence ⓘ |
| field |
metaphysics
ⓘ
modal metaphysics ⓘ philosophy of logic ⓘ |
| hasPart |
arguments for the priority of essence over modality
ⓘ
critique of purely modal accounts of essence ⓘ discussion of real versus definitional essence ⓘ formal system for essentialist operators ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary essentialist metaphysics
ⓘ
debates about the nature of metaphysical necessity ⓘ modal metaphysics ⓘ theories of metaphysical grounding ⓘ work on hyperintensionality ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainClaim |
essence is prior to modality
ⓘ
essentialist statements concern what it is to be a thing rather than how it is across possible worlds ⓘ essentialist truths are not reducible to purely modal truths ⓘ modal notions of necessity and possibility are to be explained in terms of essence ⓘ there are different kinds of essence, including real and definitional essence ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
essentialism
ⓘ
metaphysical essence ⓘ metaphysics ⓘ modal logic ⓘ modality ⓘ necessity ⓘ philosophy of logic ⓘ possibility ⓘ |
| notableFor |
impact on discussions of grounding and explanation
ⓘ
influential defense of essentialism in contemporary analytic philosophy ⓘ systematic treatment of essence as a primitive notion ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
“Ontological Dependence”
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
“The Logic of Essence” NERFINISHED ⓘ “Things and Their Parts” NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: “Essence and Modality” Description of subject: “Essence and Modality” is a seminal philosophical work by Kit Fine that develops an influential account of metaphysical essence and its relationship to modal notions like necessity and possibility.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.