Read more
Essences have been assigned important but controversial explanatory roles in philosophical, scientific, and social theorizing. Is it
possible for the same organism to be first a caterpillar and then a butterfly? Is it
impossible for a human being to transform into an insect like Gregor Samsa does in Kafka's
The Metamorphosis? Is it
impossible for Lot's wife to survive being turned into a pillar of salt? Traditionally, essences (or natures) have been thought to help answer such central questions about existence, identity, persistence, and modality. These questions are not only of great philosophical interest, they also are of great interest to society at large.
This Handbook surveys the state of the art on essence. Core issues about essence are discussed in 33 chapters, all of them written exclusively for this volume by leading experts. They are organized into the following four major parts, each with its own introduction that provides a summary and comparison of the part's chapters:
- History
- Essence and Essentialisms: Themes and Variations
- Applications
- Anti-Essentialist Challenges.
The volume is accessible enough for students while also providing enough details to make it a valuable reference for researchers.
While the notion of essence has been targeted for sustained criticisms since antiquity, recent work has renewed interest in the topic. This Handbook explains and synthesizes much of this current interest, placing essence within its historical context and drawing connections to many contemporary areas of philosophy as well as to scholarly work in other disciplines. With cross-references in each chapter and a comprehensive index,
The Routledge Handbook of Essence in Philosophy is a useful resource and essential reading for anyone, whether in or out of academic philosophy, seeking clarification on one of philosophy's most distinctive and notorious notions.
List of contents
Introduction
Kathrin Koslicki and Michael J. Raven Part 1: History 1. Ancient
Marko Malink 2. Medieval
Gloria Frost 3. Modern
Anat Schechtman 4. Pragmatism
Andrew Howat 5. Contemporary (Phenomenological Tradition)
Kevin Mulligan 6. Contemporary (Analytic Tradition)
Robert Michels Part 2: Essence and Essentialisms: Themes and Variations 7. Modal Conceptions of Essence
Alessandro Torza 8. Non-modal Conceptions of Essence
Fabrice Correia 9. Essences of Individuals
Marco Marabello 10. Natural Kind Essentialsm
Tuomas Tahko 11. Origin Essentialism
Teresa Robertson Ishii 12. Scientific Essentialism
Travis Dumsday 13. Dispositional Essentialism
Ka Ho Lam 14. Epistemology of Essence
Antonella Mallozzi 15. Language of Essence
Katherine Ritchie 16. Logic of Essence
Jon Litland Part 3: Applications 17. Artifacts, Artworks, and Social Objects
Asya Passinsky 18. Biological Species
Ingo Brigandt 19. Identity, Persistence, and Individuation
Maria Scarpati 20. Essence, Grounding, and Explanation
David Kovacs 21. The "Reduction" of Necessity to Non-Modal Essence
Kathrin Koslicki 22. Persons
Annina Loets 23. Psychiatric Kinds
Danielle Brown 24. Race
Ron Mallon 25. Sex and Gender
Esther Rosario 26. Social Justice
Natalie Stoljar 27. Unity
Charlotte Witt 28. Ethical Value
Julie Tannenbaum and Stavroula Glezakos Part 4: Anti-essentialist Challenges 29. Quinean Anti-Essentialism
Kit Fine 30. Conventionalism
Alan Sidelle and Jonathan Livingstone-Banks 31. Social Construction
Aaron Griffith 32. Conferralism
Anand Vaidya and Michael Wallner 33. Wittgenstein
Arata Hamawaki. Index
About the author
Kathrin Koslicki is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel. Koslicki's research interests in philosophy lie mainly in metaphysics, the philosophy of language and ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle. In her two books (
The Structure of Objects, Oxford UP, 2008; and
Form, Matter, Substance, Oxford UP, 2018), she defends a neo-Aristotelian analysis of concrete particular objects as compounds of matter (
hul¿) and form (
morph¿).
Michael J. Raven is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. He is a co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the journal
Metaphysics, and also a co-founder and steering committee member of the Metaphysics Collaborative.
