ABSTRACT
This chapter provides explanation-relative essentialism an attractive alternative to hardcore essentialism. It does justice to the connection between essences and good explanation. It is fully consistent with ontological realism. And it does all of this without requiring any "modal glue" in the world. There is a long tradition of distinguishing properties based on whether they are essential to their bearers or merely accidental. The main idea can be grasped with a metaphor. Imagine reality as a pegboard, with pegs representing individual objects and rubber bands representing their properties. Metamorphosis: Once there was a fertilized Danaus plexippus egg. Call it "Battra." Battra began to grow, with cells fissioning and becoming more specialized, Battra became a caterpillar. According to the persistence motivation for essentialism, many objects have mind-independent, absolute persistence conditions. Persistence conditions require some kind of ground. Facts about essences are the best candidate for the grounds of persistence conditions.
