A note on science and essentialism

Abstract

I argue that Bird’s extension of Kripke-Putnam style essentialist arguments fail against Humeanism fail because a) they rely on controversial intuitions about the natures of substances which no Humean would accept and b) neither scientific practice nor particular empirical facts can determine the nature of causal necessity.

Keywords

• philosophy of science, metaphysics, essentialism, laws of nature, Humeanism, dispositions.