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Single Idea 15679
[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences
]
Full Idea
Essentialism has its source in the cognitive requirement of categorization in certain domains - particularly as they affect the young learner.
Gist of Idea
Essentialism comes from the cognitive need to categorise
Source
Susan A. Gelman (The Essential Child [2003], 01 'Essentialist')
Book Ref
Gelman,Susan A.: 'The Essential Child' [OUP 2005], p.7
A Reaction
I think the phenomenon is better understood as part of the cognitive requirement to understand and explain. Categorisation is just one way to aid explanation. Children try to understand (essentially) a new animal without categorisation.
The
19 ideas
with the same theme
[how we might know the essence of an object]:
12092
|
Aristotle claims that the individual is epistemologically prior to the universal
[Aristotle, by Witt]
|
12090
|
Actual knowledge is of the individual, and potential knowledge of the universal
[Aristotle, by Witt]
|
16742
|
We only know essences through non-essential features, esp. those closest to the essence
[Suárez]
|
4869
|
Experience does not teach us any essences of things
[Spinoza]
|
12525
|
The essence of a triangle is simple; presumably substance essences are similar
[Locke]
|
13431
|
A space between three lines is both the nominal and real essence of a triangle, the source of its properties
[Locke]
|
13423
|
The schools recognised that they don't really know essences, because they couldn't coin names for them
[Locke]
|
12694
|
Essence is the distinct thinkability of anything
[Leibniz]
|
15613
|
Real cognition grasps a thing from within itself, and is not satisfied with mere predicates
[Hegel]
|
11966
|
If there are essential properties, how do you find out what they are?
[Chisholm]
|
11182
|
If essences are objects with only essential properties, they are elusive in possible worlds
[Marcus (Barcan)]
|
13971
|
Kripke claims that some properties, only knowable posteriori, are known a priori to be essential
[Kripke, by Soames]
|
12100
|
An essence is the necessary properties, derived from an intuitive identity, in origin, type and material
[Kripke, by Witt]
|
13954
|
The difficulty in essentialism is deciding the grounds for rating an attribute as essential
[Cartwright,R]
|
16552
|
If we must know some entity to know an essence, we lack a faculty to do that
[Lowe]
|
13922
|
Knowing an essence is just knowing what the thing is, not knowing some further thing
[Lowe]
|
12248
|
How can we show that a universally possessed property is an essential property?
[Mumford]
|
15679
|
Essentialism comes from the cognitive need to categorise
[Gelman]
|
15698
|
We found no evidence that mothers teach essentialism to their children
[Gelman]
|