ABSTRACT
Dispositional Essentialism is the view that ‘[a]t least some sparse, fundamental properties have dispositional essences’ (Bird 2007a: 45). This minimal characterization can be expanded in various ways, and various dispositional essentialists disagree on just how it should be expanded. Thus Alexander Bird holds, but Brian Ellis denies, that not only some but in fact all sparse, fundamental properties have dispositional essences; while Brian Ellis holds, and Alexander Bird is neutral on the question whether, the essentially dispositional properties are in turn essential to their bearers. In this paper, I will be concerned only with the minimal version of dispositional essentialism, and the argument that is given for it in Bird's recent book Nature's Metaphysics (Bird 2007a).
