The nature of metaphysics

The new essentialism is a metaphysic that has implications for philosophy right across the board, in ontology, epistemology, logic, theology, social theory, philosophy of science and most other areas. It is a thesis about the sources of power in the world, about the nature of reality, about the connections between things, about logical analysis, and even about the methodology of philosophical enquiry. As the dominant metaphysic, the Humeanism with which I have sought to contrast essentialism also has broad implications in philosophy. It is also not just a theory of science, or language, or of what exists, but a metaphysic that gives shape to contemporary theories in all of these areas.

A metaphysic cannot be judged as a more specific philosophical theory might be. It is so wide-ranging that it has to be argued for in a different way. One cannot say “Here are the problems; here is the solution”, and then argue that this solution is better than any other, for the problems shift from one metaphysical position to another. Thus, for a Humean, there are two serious problems about the laws of nature: the necessity problem (to explain the nature, or the illusion, of physical necessity) and the idealization problem (to explain the existence of laws that appear to range over idealized systems, e.g. closed and isolated ones). For an essentialist, these are not serious problems.