 The core idea of essentialist accounts in the epistemology of modality is that we acquire modal knowledge on the basis of knowledge of essence. But note that  (FE),  i.e., the fact that essences metaphysically ground modality, by no means entails that knowledge of modality must proceed via knowledge of essence. Otherwise put, metaphysical priority doesn’t require epistemic priority. Nonetheless, on the basis of (FE) essentialists identify knowledge of essence as one chief pathway to modal knowledge.