 Many would say that each individual human could not fail to be human; if so, then the basic modal characterization counts the property of being human as an essential property of each human. And, too, many would say that although someone, say Socrates, is in fact fond of dogs, Socrates could have lacked that property; if that is right, then the basic modal characterization counts the property of being fond of dogs as an accidental property of Socrates.