Essential property

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First identified by Aristotle by who made the distincion between essential and accidental properties of an object. An essential property of an object is one that, if lost, would mean the object to cease being that type of object. For example, being unmarried is said to be an essential property of a bachelor.

(EPiff) Necessarily, F is an essential property of x if, and only if, x has F in all (metaphysically) possible worlds in which x exists.


Properties which are not essential are said to be accidental.