Essentialism

Quick meaning: Essentialism is a noun meaning (philosophy) The view that objects have properties that are essential to them.

Meaning

(philosophy) The view that objects have properties that are essential to them.

More Meanings

1. A lifestyle that seeks to minimize nonessentials in order to focus on what is important.
2. (philosophy) The theory that human beings are by nature (i.e. essentially) good and that evil is the product of society.
3. (education) The doctrine that there are certain traditional concepts, values, and skills that are essential to society and should be taught to all students.
4. (sociology) The view that all members of certain groups of people (such as those with the same race, gender, age, or sexual orientation) have common, essential traits inherent to the defining feature of the group; (also) behavior or statement(s) that reflect such a view.

Example Sentences

Opponents of essentialism argue that "essences" are simply creations of language and culture.

Previous literature tracks the trajectory of gender theories from biological essentialism to social construction.

I think we need to sophisticate our understanding of cultural essentialisms, including gender ones, because it might help us deal better with issues of resistance.

More problematic is the essentialism that interests modal logicians, namely "the view that some attributes belong to an object by necessity whereas others belong to it contingently."

Word Forms

• essentialisms

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include mereological, antiessentialism, nonessentialism, essentialization, individualism, extensionalism.

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