Essence

Alternate use: essence (Shadowrun role-playing game)

In philosophy, essence is the attribute (or set of attributes) that make an object or substance what it fundamentally is. The notion of essence has acquired many slightly but importantly different shades of meaning throughout the history of philosophy; most of them derive from its use in Aristotle and its evolution within the scholastic tradition.

Essence in this sense is contrasted with accident: essential properties are properties that a substance has necessarily; accidental properties are those that it has contingently, those which the substance could have existed without having.

Based on such considerations, essence was a key notion of alchemy (cf. quintessence).

In the modern period, some philosophers—such as George Santayana—have kept the vocabulary of essences but have abolished the distinction between essence and accidents. For Santayana, the essence of a being is simply everything about it, independent of the question of existence. Essence is what-ness as distinct from that-ness.

In Existentialism, physical essence relates to physical properties: color, texture, smell... The essence of a being relates to their character, goals, morals...

See also: accident, substance, modal logic