ABSTRACT
A striking difference between natural science and the humanities leaps to the eye immediately. Natural science deals with objective facts whereas the humanities are typically not confronted with a mind-independent reality. Nature is the way it is even though people might believe it to be different from the way it is. Meaning is the description of those properties a thing must have to be a thing of the kind that it is. A distinction between nominal essence and real essence, stemming from Locke, may serve to shed light on some of these difficulties. The nominal essence comprises the properties a thing must have to be called a particular kind of thing. Natural things have no nominal essence, only real essence. This claim is at the core of the essentialist position. Nominal essence is neither necessary nor sufficient for the notion of a natural kind.
