Essentialism

The false idea that a given concept, event, or physical system has an ultimate character and correspondingly perfect description that cannot be improved upon.

Essentialism denies the improvability of explanations. Every explanation is provisional — subject to deeper, better replacements. There is no final description of anything.

Connections

• •Contradicts the core tenet of Critical Rationalism — all knowledge is improvable
• •Related to Foundationalism — both seek an endpoint to inquiry
• •Connected to Definition — essentialism assumes perfect definitions exist
• •Denies Progress — if descriptions are already perfect, no improvement is possible
• •Modes of explanation are themselves replaceable, contra essentialism
• •Opposed by the open-ended nature of Conjecture and Criticism