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Philosophy vocabulary · Metaphysics

Essence

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˈesəns/nounCommon term

In philosophy, essence means: The set of properties that make a thing what it is, without which it would not be that kind of thing at all.

In Turkish: öz, mahiyet

How it is used

Contrasted with accidents, properties a thing can lose while remaining itself. Essentialism is the view that things or kinds have essences. Sartre's slogan that, for humans, existence precedes essence denies a fixed human nature.

Example sentences

  1. Is rationality part of the essence of a human being?

  2. Sartre denies that we are born with an essence that decides who we are.

Common collocations

  • essence and existence
  • real essence
  • essence and accident
  • the essence of
  • existenceThe fact or state of being real or being there at all, as opposed to not being; in existentialism, also the concrete life of a human being.
  • substanceIn metaphysics, something that exists in its own right and has properties, rather than being a property of something else.
  • existentialismA philosophical movement centered on individual existence, freedom and choice, holding that people create meaning through how they live rather than finding it ready-made.
  • theory of FormsPlato's theory that beyond the changing physical world there are perfect, eternal and unchanging Forms, such as Beauty or Justice itself, which things only imperfectly copy.

More terms: Metaphysics

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