Essentialism is a rather vague term that encompasses doctrines dealing with the study of essence-what makes a being what it is-as opposed to contingencies-which is accidental, the absence of which does not call into question the nature of this being -. Essentialism in biology
For biologists, essentialism is a conception according to which different animal and plant species differ by essence, which implies the recognition of discontinuities in nature. This conception is opposed to nominalism, according to which only individuals and populations of individuals exist, considering that categories are only abstractions constructed by the human being within a vast continuum of forms in nature. Pictorial essentialism
Pictorial essentialism is an Argentine movement founded in 1984 by Heriberto Zorrilla accompanied by Helena Distéfano. Philosophical essentialism
As opposed to existentialism, philosophical essentialism claims that essence precedes existence, which results in denying the freedom of the individual, then reduced to the product of determinisms that define it and can not extract.
Essentialism tends to revive a debate that opposes nature and culture. This essentialism serves as an ideological basis for segregationism, which, relying on presumed differences of "nature" among human beings, divides society into distinct entities, often hierarchical among them, and attributes to them characteristics, aptitudes, a social role or specific statutes. According to the criteria retained to establish these discriminations, we will talk about sexism, racism, homophobia or other types of segregationism.
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