Questions tagged [essence]
The essence tag has no usage guidance.
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I dont understand the differences between Plato's Forms and Husserl's essence
So Plato's essence is universal essence existing independently of us. And Husserl's essence, despite being invariant they are not universal and does not exist beyond the conscious relation to the ...
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Did Aristotle think that essence and existence were distinct?
Did Aristotle think that essence and existence are the same thing or that they are different things? Are there references that could help me understand how he saw the difference?
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Could, "If X is red, X has a coloration," possibly be not true like, "Cucumbers are vegetables," is not strictly true?
I just watched this video, I thought it was a joke video at first, but it turned out to be an explanation as to why the metaphysical concept of "vegetables" is not scientifically stable, and ...
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Aquinas on the relation between essence, being, and existence
In Summa Contra Gentiles 2.9.4, Aquinas writes
Just as active power is something acting, so is its essence something
being [Sicut potentia activa est aliquid agens, ita essentia eius est aliquid ens]....
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Can obligations be substances/objects?
Background idea: H. A. Prichard's following thesis:
Prichard’s second argument is equally idiosyncratic. We can have an obligation to do an action long before the action is done. If so, the ...
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Is the hard problem of consciousness really a problem? [closed]
If consciousness is essential to the universe then there is no problem.
Integrated information theory posits that consciousness and its causal properties are identical. Leibniz's principle of ...
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Are natural rights embedded in essentialism?
Natural rights are the idea in which human beings are owners of certain rights by nature, by the fact that they are born humans. That being said, one should be able to determine whether something is ...
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Is the “essence” of a category in philosophy vacuous?
Some philosophers, to my agreement, argue that the concept of a rock for example is merely an abstraction that strips away the difference between particulars belonging to the category “rock”. In ...
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Essentialism and concepts
I've been reading an old logic text (Deductive Logic. George Stock. 1888) and he describes something very like Aristotle's notion of a definition, but in his description, it is clearly a matter of ...
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Philosophers who explore the importance of history/culture giving us meaning in life?
Take the example of the concept of 'femininity':
An existentialist thinker might suggest the meaning of femininity is completely subjective and one must decide the meaning of femininity for themselves ...
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What is the anti-thesis of Existentialism?
Existentialism represents a turning away from systematic philosophy (with its emphasis on metaphysical absolutes and principles of rational certainty) and toward an emphasis on the concrete existence ...
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Are there secular philosophers who argue for predetermined and given meaning/value in life and essentialism?
In continental philosophy particularly existentialism, thinkers reject the idea that there are any predetermined or given meanings/values in life, and stresses that we must take up our freedom and ...
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Is an equal outcome necessary to differentiate between equity and equality?
Based on the answer provided here, it seems to me that when the word "equity" is used in relation to "equality," an equal outcome is necessary in order to differentiate between ...
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The necessity of shine in Hegel's Logic
In the Doctrine of Essence Hegel begins with shine [schein] as
"all that remains of the sphere of being" (WL, p.342).
He further qualifies it as a
"nothingness or a lack of essence......
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Buckets of twater
I was reading through the SEP article on the epistemology of modality, which prompted my initial question:
Is, "Water is H2O," currently falsifiable?
Or are we now in a position where, if ...
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No change can be responsible for an essence ceasing to exist?
Essences - assuming there are no bare essences - of things that exist, exist forever.
I think so, and I even have my own most argument for it below. Which philosophers agree or disagree? It may have ...
user57725
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Is Husserl's transcendental ego God?
We will eventually come up against something that cannot be varied
without destroying that object as an instance of its kind. The
implicit claim here is that if it is inconceivable that an object of
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How does existence preceding essence not preclude the possibility of bad faith?
How does existence preceding essence not preclude the possibility of bad faith? In what sense is it possible to act inauthentically if there is no authenticity other than what we make for ourselves?
I ...
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Is the dichotomy between natural and unnatural defensible?
Are not the dictionary definitions of natural and unnatural inconsistent?
Why wouldn't whatever humans create (e.g. money, plastic bags, books, internet, laptop, lamp, buildings, airplanes, etc) be ...
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How did the existence-essence distinction help Aquinas explain finite being?
In a tortuously compressed passage, Frederick Copleston writes
[Aquinas] adopted the (originally) Platonic notion of participation,
[but] he did not employ it in a manner which would conflict with ...
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How does Spinoza deduce substance must cause itself?
Prop. VII. Existence Belongs to the Nature of Substance
Spinoza demonstrates this by arguing substance must be the cause of itself, i.e. existence must belong to the nature of substance (by def. 1). ...
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Does Phenomenology Reject The Existence of Mediating Concepts?
I am reading Robert Sokolowski's Introduction to Phenomenology. He makes phenomenology out to be inherently realist: when we intend something, we intend the thing itself (not the "idea" or &...
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What’s is Essentialism
Is this statement wrong?:
Essentialism is the belief that (a) the Platonic world of forms exist, that (b) everything in this world is an imperfect embodiment of these forms, and (c) you can specify ...
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Essentialism as Philosophical Substrate of Realpolitik? [closed]
I was reading a political science paper, in a foreign language so there is no point in sharing, which described realpolitik as having a philosophical substrate of essentialism. The statement was ...
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Does Spinoza think essence and eternity are the same thing?
"VIII. By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition of that which is eternal."
"Explanation—Existence of this kind ...
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What is basically at stake in contemporary discussions regarding essentialism and essential properties?
Modern discussions of " essentialism" ( 17th century) can be associated with the empiricism / rationalsit debate. By denying that we have acces to " real essences" , Locke also denies that we can know ...
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Do stories contain "Meta-truth"? Jordan Peterson
I am hoping someone can help me find what is wrong and/or right with the idea of "meta-truth". I am also curious as to what can be problematic. ..I don't think "meta-truth" is defined officially.
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Why for Spinoza is the essence of the mind eternal?
Quoted in The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza, 302.
I'm confused as to why, if we express the essence of the body under the aspect of eternity -- which for the purposes of the question I take to mean its ...
user44289
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Do you consider "essence“ a useful philosophical concept? [closed]
The term, "essence", is a technical term in philosophy.
The usefulness of the concept has been assessed differently by different philosophers. E.g., the concept has been highly estimated by Plato, ...
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Origins of the reflection of knowledge, lately known as Epistemology
What is the essential or fundamental entity that triggered the emergence of reflection of knowledge (lately known as Epistemology) as a declarative or descriptive knowledge ?
May the origin be found ...
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What is put on what (the mayo or the eggs) and why?
What are some branches of philosophy that could be used to analyze the question "did I put mayo on my eggs, or eggs on my mayo?" I understand that the question itself is very weak, but I am just ...
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Help understanding Deleuzian realism?
I am interested in reading a philosophy book titled "Intensive Science And Virtual Philosophy" by Manuel DeLanda. It deals with a new field of philosophy called speculative realism. As I understand ...
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Sartre on essence
Yesterday my professor said something that seemed rather strange. Roughly, it was
According to Sartre, humans are the only beings that don't have an essence.
Now I haven't read Sartre, and I'm not ...
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What is existence for existentialists?
As my current work leaded me to analyse existence from the systemic point of view, I've decided it's time to read Sartre and about existentialism, which I've long time postponed. So I've started with ...
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How can Marx be a materialist yet still speak of a human "essence" in his theory of alienation?
On one hand, Marx is a staunch materialist: he bases his theory of history on dialectical materialism, and denies any metaphysical realities above and beyond the material conditions that make human ...
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What does the "essence of time" mean for Merleau-Ponty?
“it is of the essence of time to be not only actual time, or time
which flows, but also time which is aware of itself … the archetype of
the relationship of self to self”
What does he mean by '...
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What exactly does Spivak mean by strategic essentialism?
I'm trying to understand better how to delineate essentialism from strategic essentialism. To me it would seem strategic essentialism is a political or social act of forming a coalition based aroun a ...
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Does Spinoza's God have an essence?
Referring by "God" to Spinoza's God (that is, one may substitute "God" with "Nature" following the title of this question can be "On Nature and Nature's Essence and Essence") and capitalizing this as ...
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Complex Systems Theory in Philosophic Terms
Given the below paragraph:
Complex Systems Theory involves the systematic, scientific and mathematical study of complexity itself, as it is found throughout the natural world. With a view to ...
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How can "essentialism" ever make sense?
So, searching for J. L. Mackies "argument from queerness", I stumbled upon this blog entry.
Now, Mr. Feser seems to be a quite... controversial figure, to say the least, but please let's resist the ...
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What does Sartre mean with that existence precedes essence and how is it related to the earlier existential philosophers' thoughts?
What does Sartre mean with that existence precedes essence and how is it related to the earlier existential philosophers' thoughts?
Existential philosophers like Kirkegaard, Heideggers and Friedrich ...
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Deleuzian finitism and Spinozian infinitism
In the IEP entry on Deluze, there is the following:
Commenting on Lucretius, Deleuze makes the following, extremely similar, remark:
"The speculative object and the practical object of ...
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Were we born to believe? [closed]
This is a controversial question and not one that necessarily implies a Super Natural intervention, but I am curious about your opinion.
Many of you I would hope is aware of the fact that living our ...
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Essential Objects [closed]
I am not looking to stir up anything, but is an electron an essential object?
To answer this question, it may first be beneficial to ask "Is a brick an essential object?"
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Essential Nature [closed]
When trying to understand the definition of "essential nature", Richard P. Feynman posed the following question to group of philosophers and it allegedly ended in great disagreement. Has philosophy ...
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Is gender a property of essence or existence?
In his address, the Holy Father said:
According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as
male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature.
The use of the word "...
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Is it useful to say that weak essences exist?
For Latour all things from people, trees, minerals, all the way to atomic phenomena are able to be seen as actors and actants, with no actor or actant being reducible or irreducible to anything else. ...
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