We demonstrate how the conception of essence motivating essentialists to advance the thesis that essences ground modality—what we call the domain-fixing conception of essence—seems well-positioned to vindicate the necessity of essence. We do this by setting out various aspects of the picture thinking constitutive of the view. By regimenting some of its structural features, we show how they secure the necessity of essence. We then raise a circularity worry, due to Leech (2020), and show that the domain-fixing conception seems well-positioned to avoid it. Afterwards, we try to push past mere picture thinking in search of a precisification of the domain-fixing view. We consider three ways of making the domain-fixing conception of essence precise, and show that the most viable precisification is what we call the zero-grounding view. We then develop a circularity worry for the zero-grounding view. The upshot is a deepening of the concerns raised by Leech and others. In drawing out the modal implications of the picture thinking motivating essentialists to advance the thesis that essence grounds modality, we see that if essence entails necessity, it cannot, in so doing, ground it.

Speaker 
Prof. Taylor-Grey Miller
Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University