Essentialist or Non-Essentialist Essentialism and non-essentialism are two different stances on why something is named what it is. People who are essentialists believe that the names things are named what they are named because they contain certain properties that only that one object has. Non-essentialists believe that things are whatever we call them in a specific situation and that things do not have essences. I believe that essentialism is a much better way of thinking because they have both reason and justification. The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates , was very firm on believer of essentialism. He believed that there must be justification for things all in the world. This man, wanted to know why people were said to have virtue instead of just claiming they have it much like Meno did. He was very stubborn with Meno on this topic that their argument ended in aporia, which is known as angered puzzlement. Meno tried offering Socrates examples, but Socrates decided to stick to his own personal opinion. He did this because he felt the need to live up to being the wisest man in Athens, even though he knew he was not wise at all. Justification is needed with essentialism in order to claim something truly has an essence. People typically have a reason for their actions otherwise they would not perform them. Often times it may not be a strong reason, but at least they had some sort of a purpose to their action. When parents are naming their children, they more than likely have a specific reason for giving them that name. Many times parents give their children a certain name because of family traditions or to symbolize something. Pets, vehicles, food, colors of the rainbow, and name brands all work the way. They receive their name with a reason. Properties can make up these reasons. Reasons are properties of something that contains essence. When something has all of the specific properties, then it is that type of object because it fits into those properties. A cherry from Traverse City is an excellent example of this because it has many specific properties that no other fruit has. Now think about the properties Traverse City cherry has and why it is called that exact name. When you hold the cherry you first notice its color, this is just one of its many properties. You will also notice its shape and how round it is. Since this cherry is ripe it will not have many imperfections on it. You will also notice that the package you received the cherry from will have a label that mentions the cherry was grown and harvested in Michigan’s own Traverse City. When a ripe Traverse City cherry matches all of these simple properties, it must be a true Traverse City cherry and nothing else because of it’s essences. It could not possibly be an orange because it does not have a tough skin that must be removed before eating.
Another example of essentialism is when scientists described the characteristics of mammals. A mammal is called a mammal because of the characteristics it has such as having hair at some point in their life, being warm-blooded, being able to produce natural milk for their young, and having the ability to give live birth. If the animal does not acquire all of these characteristics, then they are not considered a mammal. A turtle is cold-blooded; therefore it is not a mammal. A is not a mammal because it does not give live birth, it only lays eggs. A kangaroo is warm-blooded and gives live birth so they must be characterized as a mammal. Non-essentialism is the complete opposite of essentialism. Someone who is an non-essentialist is described as someone who believes the name of the object is whatever you call it in a specific situation. They simply call things by the names you learned with no justification.. We are able acquire knowledge in a few different ways. We are able acquire knowledge by imperialism, rationalism, and mysticism. Knowledge can not be acquired by pointing at something and giving it a name with no justification. We must have reason. If you do not have a true reason, then how is someone going to think you are telling the truth about that specific thing? Not having a reason for something is a lack of knowledge. If there is no “why” then there is no “how” or “what”. Essentialism has benefited and created many possibilities in life. It has helped us define multiple things in life like houses compared to apartments, carrots compared to parsnips, and even chocolate compared to vanilla. Those are just a few things out of the trillions the society has managed to officially give a title to over these millenniums. If we did not have essentialism in our lives, people would be going around calling a blanket something completely different like a book or broccoli, words would also have no true meaning. Here is just a simple thought tangent quickly to sum these ideas. If you call something by a specific title, why did you say that specific title? Why do you call it by that title? How do you know it is called that specific title? Would you call it anything else besides that specific title? Curiosity eludes you on these simple thoughts that make you question why you call something one thing and another something else. If curiosity does not elude you, then you must know that the reason you call something a specific title is because you were taught that it has specific properties then it must be that title. You learned this by witnessing it from people around you. Therefore, you have acquired this knowledge through empiricism. Using empiricism to gain this knowledge helps you to realize that all along you have been an essentialist simply because your reason for calling something that title is because you have seen experienced it first hand.