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Essentialism
Essentialismwhat I've calleu "the tyianny of the uiscontinuous minu"stems fiom Plato, with his chaiacteiistically uieek
geometei's view of things. Foi Plato, a ciicle, oi a iight tiiangle, weie iueal foims, uefinable mathematically but nevei
iealiseu in piactice. A ciicle uiawn in the sanu was an impeifect appioximation to the iueal Platonic ciicle hanging in some
abstiact space. That woiks foi geometiic shapes like ciicles, but essentialism has been applieu to living things anu Einst
Nayi blameu this foi humanity's late uiscoveiy of evolutionas late as the nineteenth centuiy. If, like Aiistotle, you tieat all
flesh-anu-bloou iabbits as impeifect appioximations to an iueal Platonic iabbit, it won't occui to you that iabbits might have
evolveu fiom a non-iabbit ancestoi, anu might evolve into a non-iabbit uescenuant. If you think, following the uictionaiy
uefinition of essentialism, that the (11(37( of iabbitness is "piioi to" the (9&1)(37( of iabbits (whatevei "piioi to" might
mean, anu that's a nonsense in itself) evolution is not an iuea that will spiing ieauily to youi minu, anu you may iesist when
somebouy else suggests it.
Paleontologists will aigue passionately about whethei a paiticulai fossil is, say, E51)%$/"8&)*(751 oi I"6"< But any
evolutionist knows theie must have existeu inuiviuuals who weie exactly inteimeuiate. It's essentialist folly to insist on the
necessity of shoehoining youi fossil into one genus oi the othei. Theie nevei was an E51)%$/"8&)*(751 mothei who gave biith
to a I"6" chilu, foi eveiy chilu evei boin belongeu to the same species as its mothei. The whole system of labelling species
with uiscontinuous names is geaieu to a time slice, the piesent, in which ancestois have been conveniently expungeu fiom
oui awaieness (anu "iing species" tactfully ignoieu). If by some miiacle eveiy ancestoi weie pieseiveu as a fossil,
uiscontinuous naming woulu be impossible. Cieationists aie misguiueuly fonu of citing "gaps" as embaiiassing foi
evolutionists, but gaps aie a foituitous boon foi taxonomists who, with goou ieason, want to give species uisciete names.
Quaiielling about whethei a fossil is "ieally" E51)%$/"8&)*(751 oi I"6" is like quaiielling ovei whethei ueoige shoulu be
calleu "tall". Be's five foot ten, uoesn't that tell you what you neeu to know.
Essentialism ieais its ugly heau in iacial teiminology. The majoiity of "Afiican Ameiicans" aie of mixeu iace. Yet so
entiencheu is oui essentialist minu-set, Ameiican official foims iequiie eveiyone to tick one iaceethnicity box oi anothei:
no ioom foi inteimeuiates. A uiffeient but also peinicious point is that a peison will be calleu "Afiican Ameiican" even if
only, say, one of his eight gieat gianupaients was of Afiican uescent. As Lionel Tigei put it to me, we have heie a
iepiehensible "contamination metaphoi." But I mainly want to call attention to oui society's essentialist ueteimination to
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uiagoon a peison into one uisciete categoiy oi anothei. We seem ill-equippeu to ueal mentally with a continuous spectium
of inteimeuiates. We aie still infecteu with the plague of Plato's essentialism.
Noial contioveisies such as those ovei aboition anu euthanasia aie iiuuleu with the same infection. At what point is a
biain-ueau acciuent-victim uefineu as "ueau". At what moment uuiing uevelopment uoes an embiyo become a "peison".
0nly a minu infecteu with essentialism woulu ask such questions. An embiyo uevelops giauually fiom single-celleu zygote to
newboin baby, anu theie's no one instant when "peisonhoou" shoulu be ueemeu to have aiiiveu. The woilu is uiviueu into
those who get this tiuth anu those who wail, "But theie has to be 1"6( moment when the fetus becomes human." No, theie
ieally uoesn't, any moie than theie has to be a uay when a miuule ageu peison becomes olu. It woulu be betteithough still
not iuealto say the embiyo goes thiough stages of being a quaitei human, half human, thiee quaiteis human . . . The
essentialist minu will iecoil fiom such language anu accuse me of all mannei of hoiiois foi uenying the (11(37( of
humanness.
Evolution too, like embiyonic uevelopment, is giauual. Eveiy one of oui ancestois, back to the common ioot we shaie with
chimpanzees anu beyonu, belongeu to the same species as its own paients anu its own chiluien. Anu likewise foi the
ancestois of a chimpanzee, back to the same shaieu piogenitoi. We aie linkeu to mouein chimpanzees by a v-shapeu chain
of inuiviuuals who once liveu anu bieatheu anu iepiouuceu, each link in the chain being a membei of the same species as its
neighbouis in the chain, no mattei that taxonomists insist on uiviuing them at convenient points anu thiusting uiscontinuous
labels upon them. If all the inteimeuiates, uown both foiks of the v fiom the shaieu ancestoi, hau happeneu to suivive,
moialists woulu have to abanuon theii essentialist, "speciesist" habit of placing I"6" 1$8&(31 on a sacieu plinth, infinitely
sepaiate fiom all othei species. Aboition woulu no moie be "muiuei" than killing a chimpanzeeoi, by extension, any
animal. Inueeu an eaily-stage human embiyo, with no neivous system anu piesumably lacking pain anu feai, might
uefensibly be affoiueu less moial piotection than an auult pig, which is cleaily well equippeu to suffei. 0ui essentialist uige
towaiu iigiu uefinitions of "human" (in uebates ovei aboition anu animal iights) anu "alive" (in uebates ovei euthanasia anu
enu-of-life uecisions) makes no sense in the light of evolution anu othei giauualistic phenomena.
We uefine a poveity "line": you aie eithei "above" oi "below" it. But poveity is a continuum. Why not say, in uollai-
equivalents, how pooi you actually aie. The pieposteious Electoial College system in 0S piesiuential elections is anothei,
anu especially giievous, manifestation of essentialist thinking. Floiiua must go eithei wholly Republican oi wholly Bemociat
all 2S Electoial College voteseven though the populai vote is a ueau heat. But states shoulu not be seen as (11(3)&$//;
ieu oi blue: they aie mixtuies in vaiious piopoitions.
You can suiely think of many othei examples of "the ueau hanu of Plato"essentialism. It is scientifically confuseu anu
moially peinicious. It neeus to be ietiieu.
Q*!D R+*NP-OD, Euitoi anu Publishei
=IFF&LL 3&GDH&+(&+, Associate Publishei
Nina Stegeman, Euitoiial Assistant

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