Questions tagged [essence]
41 questions
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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 natural when humans are natural and part of nature…
ActualCry
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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 struggling to classify this type of thought. Sort of…
Kebtiz
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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 society the way it is. In the preface to A…
Alexander S King
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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 'essence'? Is it the to my mind pretty…
user6917
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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 intensions, of concepts alone. His notion of a…
David Gudeman
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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 philosophy as Naturalism, science and pleasure, coincide on…
Mozibur Ullah
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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 responsibility to go and create meaning for…
user65383
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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 in a position to do so any time soon, so I can't…
Canyon
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Do you consider "essence“ a useful philosophical concept?
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, Aristotle and Husserl, but dismissed by Kant. He…
Jo Wehler
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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. A tree cannot ultimately be reduced without…
Dr Sister
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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 equity and equality. Otherwise equity would just be equality.
I know…
OutwardThinking
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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 Nausea and Existentialism is Humanism.
Minutes…
RodolfoAP
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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 supposedly essential marker (black, gay, woman…
mart
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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 of a human being “thrown” into a world that is…
user65383
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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...its being is its own equality with itself" (WL, p.346).
That…
Samuel D
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