Often synonymous to

anti-foundationalism Anti-foundationalism (also called nonfoundationalism) is any philosophy which rejects a foundationalist approach. An anti-foundationalist is one who does not believe that there is some fundamental belief or principle which is the basic ground or f ...

, non-essentialism in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

is the non-belief in an essence (from Latin ''esse'') of any given thing, idea, or metaphysical

entity An entity is something that exists as itself, as a subject or as an object, actually or potentially, concretely or abstractly, physically or not. It need not be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually ...

(e.g. God). Non-essentialism might also be defined cataphatically (i.e. affirmatively; see

cataphatic theology Cataphatic theology or kataphatic theology is theology that uses "positive" terminology to describe or refer to the divine – specifically, God – i.e. terminology that describes or refers to what the divine is believed to be, in cont ...

) as the belief that for any entity, there are no specific traits or ground of being which entities of that kind must possess to be considered "that entity." Non-essentialism is not restricted to general philosophical speculation. It is also found in academic disciplines such as

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

. How non-essentialism is used in these discourses varies a bit given their different content and subject matter.

Criticism

Edward Feser Edward C. Feser (; born April 16, 1968) is an American Catholic philosopher. He is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California. Education Feser holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Californi ...

describes the position as not only untenable logically but psychologically impossible. In his book ''Aristotle's Revenge'' he argues that one cannot say the universe essentially doesn't have an essence without violating the

Law of noncontradiction In logic, the law of non-contradiction (LNC) (also known as the law of contradiction, principle of non-contradiction (PNC), or the principle of contradiction) states that contradictory propositions cannot both be true in the same sense at the sa ...

``Aristotle's Revenge, The Metaphysical Foundations of Physical and Biological Science`` (editionae scholasticae, 2019) p.82.

Citations

References

Essentialism Metaphysical theories {{metaphysics-stub

Criticism

See also

Citations

References