Essentialism

Luciano L'Abate

pp. 421-433

in: Luciano L'Abate (ed), Paradigms in theory construction, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

While essentialism originally was uniquely rhetorical in philosophy, based on arguments rather than evidence, in the last generation essentialism has been the subject of a great deal of psychological research. This research raises serious questions about essentialism actually being considered as a theory rather than as a paradigm. Therefore, essentialism may have started as a paradigm, at least in philosophy, but has emerged as an influential psychological theory worthy of inclusion in this volume.