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Single Idea 15679

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences ]

Full Idea

Essentialism has its source in the cognitive requirement of categorization in certain domains - particularly as they affect the young learner.

Gist of Idea

Essentialism comes from the cognitive need to categorise

Source

Susan A. Gelman (The Essential Child [2003], 01 'Essentialist')

Book Ref

Gelman,Susan A.: 'The Essential Child' [OUP 2005], p.7

A Reaction

I think the phenomenon is better understood as part of the cognitive requirement to understand and explain. Categorisation is just one way to aid explanation. Children try to understand (essentially) a new animal without categorisation.

The 32 ideas from 'The Essential Child'

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