Abstract

This chapter explores the notions of essence and disposition. Traditionally, these concepts have been understood as inherently modal: a property is essential to an object if and only if it is necessarily possessed by the object (assuming the object’s existence), while a property is dispositional for an object if and only if it is possible for the object to manifest it under certain enabling conditions. Regarding essences, contemporary metaphysical debates have often centered on the question: which properties, if any, qualify as essential? Some argue that each individual has a distinctive essential property, or haecceity, which grounds its individuality. Others contend that essential properties determine an object’s natural kind, while another perspective links essential properties to the origin of the individual.In the case of dispositions, debates have focused on the logical structure of dispositional attributions and the relationship between the triggering event and the manifestation of the dispositional property. Recently, however, many philosophers have challenged the reduction of essences and dispositions to the modal notions of necessity and possibility, advocating instead for an understanding of such notions on their own terms. Building on this reconceptualization, some have sought to reconstruct the notions of possibility and necessity through the fundamental concepts of essence and disposition, aiming to reframe the entire metaphysics of modality.