Essentialism in Biology
Primary Contributors: Beckett Sterner
Editors: Beckett Sterner
Primary Contributors: Beckett Sterner
Editors: Beckett Sterner
As a metaphysical thesis, essentialism holds that real entities in the world can be grouped into classes whose natures can be defined by necessary and sufficient conditions. Philosophers commonly point to the atomic elements as paradigm examples of essences, although this claims turns out to be more complicated that it first appears. This page describes different ways biologists and philosophers have conceived of how biological entities may belong to classes with essences.
Typology in taxonomy
Hull 1965
Essences with vague boundaries
Sober 1980
Origin essentialism
Natural state model
Sober 1980
Homeostatic property clusters
Boyd