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Single Idea 15678

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 5. Essence as Kind ]

Full Idea

Essentialism is the view that categories have an underlying reality or true nature that one cannot observe directly but that gives an object its identity.

Gist of Idea

Essentialism says categories have a true hidden nature which gives an object its identity

Source

Susan A. Gelman (The Essential Child [2003], 01 'Intro')

Book Ref

Gelman,Susan A.: 'The Essential Child' [OUP 2005], p.3

A Reaction

I think the introduction of categories here is a misunderstanding. Does an uncategorisable thing therefore have no identity (even though it has properties)? If categories give objects their identity, what gives categories their identity?

The 27 ideas with the same theme [essence as belonging to a particular natural kind]:

11188 The Aristotelian view is that the essential properties are those that sort an object [Aristotle, by Marcus (Barcan)]
11196 Essence is something in common between the natures which sort things into categories [Aquinas]
13074 Only natural kinds and their members have real essences [Suárez, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
17233 Particulars contain universal things [Hobbes]
12530 The less rational view of essences is that they are moulds for kinds of natural thing [Locke]
12532 Even real essence depends on a sort, since it is sorts which have the properties [Locke]
12539 If every sort has its real essence, one horse, being many sorts, will have many essences [Locke]
21218 The sense of anything contingent has a purely apprehensible essence or Eidos [Husserl]
15106 Essence is expressed by grammar [Wittgenstein]
11908 Putnam bases essences on 'same kind', but same kinds may not share properties [Mackie,P on Putnam]
12679 A real essence is a kind's distinctive properties [Ellis]
17055 Atomic number 79 is part of the nature of the gold we know [Kripke]
17523 Sortals basically apply to individuals [Ayers]
15143 Kind essences are the categorical bases of a thing's causal powers [Bhaskar, by Chakravartty]
11895 A sortal essence is a property which once possessed always possessed [Brody, by Mackie,P]
12141 Maybe essential properties are those which determine a natural kind? [Brody]
16509 Natural kinds are well suited to be the sortals which fix substances [Wiggins]
12013 Essential properties depend on a category, and perhaps also on particular facts [Forbes,G]
15678 Essentialism says categories have a true hidden nature which gives an object its identity [Gelman]
15683 Sortals are needed for determining essence - the thing must be categorised first [Gelman]
15697 Kind (unlike individual) essentialism assumes preexisting natural categories [Gelman]
12871 Objects have their essential properties because of the kind of objects they are [Simons]
13129 Essential kinds may be too specific to provide ontological categories [Westerhoff]
11909 Unlike Hesperus=Phosophorus, water=H2O needs further premisses before it is necessary [Mackie,P]
11899 Why are any sortals essential, and why are only some of them essential? [Mackie,P]
15145 A kind essence is the necessary and sufficient properties for membership of a class [Chakravartty]
10939 'Sortal essentialism' says being a particular kind is what is essential [Rami]