Fischer esterification is an example of nucleophilic acyl substitution based on the electrophilicity of the carbonyl carbon and the nucleophilicity of an alcohol. However, carboxylic acids tend to be less reactive than esters as electrophiles. Additionally, in dilute neutral solutions they tend to be deprotonated anions (and thus unreactive as electrophiles). Though very kinetically slow without any catalysts (most esters are metastable), pure esters will tend to spontaneously hydrolyse in the presence of water, so when carried out "unaided", high yields for this reaction is quite unfavourable.