| 2003 | The Essential Child |
| 01 'Background' | p.15 | 15685 | Essentialism is either natural to us, or an accident of our culture, or a necessary result of language |
| 01 'Essentialist' | p.7 | 15679 | Essentialism comes from the cognitive need to categorise |
| 01 'Intro' | p.3 | 15678 | Essentialism says categories have a true hidden nature which gives an object its identity |
| 01 'Prelims' | p.7 | 15680 | Folk essentialism rests on belief in natural kinds, in hidden properties, and on words indicating structures |
| 01 'Prelims' | p.8 | 15681 | Essentialism: real or representational? sortal, causal or ideal? real particulars, or placeholders? |
| 01 'Prelims' | p.11 | 15682 | Even fairly simple animals make judgements based on categories |
| 01 'Prelims' | p.13 | 15683 | Sortals are needed for determining essence - the thing must be categorised first |
| 01 'Prelims' | p.13 | 15684 | Children's concepts include nonobvious features, like internal parts, functions and causes |
| 02 'Privileged' | p.55 | 15686 | Labels may indicate categories which embody an essence |
| 03 'Summary' | p.88 | 15687 | Kinship is essence that comes in degrees, and age groups are essences that change over time |
| 05 'Causation' | p.109 | 15688 | Categories are characterized by distance from a prototype |
| 05 'Causation1' | p.109 | 15689 | Theory-based concepts use rich models to show which similarities really matter |
| 05 'Causation2' | p.116 | 15690 | Causal properties are seen as more central to category concepts |
| 06 'Essentialism' | p.151 | 15696 | Peope favor historical paths over outward properties when determining what something is |
| 06 'Essentialism' | p.152 | 15697 | Kind (unlike individual) essentialism assumes preexisting natural categories |
| 06 'Intro' | p.136 | 15691 | Children accept real stable categories, with nonobvious potential that gives causal explanations |
| 06 'Is essentialism' | p.142 | 15692 | People tend to be satisfied with shallow explanations |
| 06 'The role' | p.143 | 15693 | One sample of gold is enough, but one tree doesn't give the height of trees |
| 06 'The role' | p.147 | 15694 | Children overestimate the power of a single example |
| 06 'The role' | p.150 | 15695 | Children make errors in induction by focusing too much on categories |
| 07 'Conclusions' | p.175 | 15698 | We found no evidence that mothers teach essentialism to their children |
| 08 'Intro' | p.179 | 15700 | In India, upper-castes essentialize caste more than lower-castes do |
| 08 'Intro' | p.179 | 15699 | Prelinguistic infants acquire and use many categories |
| 08 'Naming' | p.189 | 15701 | Nouns seem to invoke stable kinds more than predicates do |
| 09 'Theory' | p.266 | 15702 | Essentialism doesn't mean we know the essences |
| 09 'Theory' | p.269 | 15703 | Memories often conform to a theory, rather than being neutral |
| 10 'Figuring' | p.286 | 15704 | Essentialism starts from richly structured categories, leading to a search for underlying properties |
| 11 'Broadening' | p.312 | 15707 | There is intentional, mechanical, teleological, essentialist, vitalist and deontological understanding |
| 11 'Broadening' | p.316 | 15708 | Inductive success is rewarded with more induction |
| 11 'Discussion' | p.324 | 15709 | Essentialism is useful for predictions, but it is not the actual structure of reality |
| 11 'Intro' | p.296 | 15705 | Essentialism encourages us to think about the world scientifically |
| 11 'Is essentialism' | p.299 | 15706 | A major objection to real essences is the essentialising of social categories like race, caste and occupation |