ABSTRACT
Essentialism presents a view of reality that is very different from that of any kind of passivism. Essentialists believe that:
a inanimate matter is not passive, but essentially active; b the actions of things depend on their causal powers and other dispositional
properties; c dispositional properties are genuine properties, and intrinsic to the things that
have them; d the essential properties of things always include dispositional properties; e elementary causal relations involve necessary connections between events,
namely between the displays of dispositional properties and the circumstances that give rise to them;
f the laws of nature describe the ways that members of natural kinds are logically required (or are necessarily disposed) to act, given their essential natures and
g the laws of nature aremetaphysically necessary, because anything that belongs to a natural kind is logically required (or is necessarily disposed) to behave as its essential properties dictate.
