10.1. Aristotle’s Essential and Accidental Properties

Aristotle founded many of the branches of science we know today. In fact, the study of science pretty much traces back to him. He categorized, cataloged, and defined entire fields of thought about the natural world. He also built the foundations of logic and formal thinking.

One of the logical principles Aristotle defined was the distinction between essential and accidental properties. Let’s say you have a group of five bachelors, all of whom have brown eyes. Unmarriedness is the essential property of the group. Brown eyes is an accidental property. You can’t make the logical deduction that all bachelors have brown eyes because the eye color is really just coincidental.