What is essentialism in philosophy?

Answer

Philosophical essentialism is the concept that the nature of things remains constant and unchanging. Essentialism suggests that it is necessary to describe an entity based on what is essential to its nature and existence.

Using a bird as an example can be helpful. One might question what is crucial to being a bird. Is it the ability to fly? No, because there are birds that do not fly (like ostriches, emus, etc.), and there are non-bird creatures that do (such as bats). Even if a flying bird becomes unable to fly due to an injury, it remains a bird. So, if flying is not essential to being a bird, what is? Several essential aspects of being a bird include feathers, wings, a beak, lack of teeth, and laying eggs with hard shells. While other creatures may have some of these characteristics, for a bird, all of them are essential. Without these traits, whatever it may be, it is not a bird.

The primary philosophical debate surrounding essentialism pertains to the essence of humans. What defines us? What sets us apart from other beings? Is there something fundamental to being human? When considering this matter from an atheistic and physicalist perspective (where everything is physical matter: protons, neutrons, atoms, elements, etc.), there is nothing inherently essential to being human. In a purely physicalist view, there is no distinction between humans and higher apes like chimpanzees and gorillas. Those who adhere to physicalism see humans as “advanced primates” or “biological machines.” If the physical world is all-encompassing, and the only difference between animals, rocks, trees, etc., is the arrangement of atoms, then nothing is fundamentally essential, and nothing is fundamentally distinct from anything else. Everything is essentially stardust.Nothing more than stardust.

Essentialism fits within the biblical framework. In the physical world, God differentiates all kinds of things. A helpful example of God’s differentiation of things is found in the six days of creation in Genesis 1. On each day, God creates something different and assigns these creatures certain roles and places in the creation. They are distinct from one another. God, in Genesis and throughout the rest of the Bible, declares that there are essential differences in the created world.

Specifically, when God creates man on the sixth day, He creates man in His own image. Nothing else in all creation bears the image of God—only humans. Thus, what specifically differentiates humans from the rest of the physical world is that humans carry within them the image of God. Bearing the image of God is an essential requirement for being human.

What does it mean that humans bear the image of God? It means many things, but of prime importance is the reality that, as with God, we are moral creatures. We have a conscience by which we determine the rightness of a thought or action. In Romans 2:15, we are told that our conscience “bears witness” to rightness and sin. We have thoughts that accuse us or excuse us based on our understanding of right and wrong. Whether or not we have a formal moral law like the Ten Commandments, we all have an understanding of right and wrong, good and evil. This is an essential characteristic of what it means to be human.

As we consider essentialism, it is vital that we are aware that there may be forms of essentialism that declare distinct, essential differences among physical creatures but do not hold humans as image bearers of God. Any form of essentialism that denies that humans are image bearers of God is empty deceit and human tradition (see Colossians 2:8), and we are not to be taken captive by such philosophy.