## Metadata - Author: [[Susan A. Gelman]] - Full Title: The Essential Child - Category: #books ## Highlights - essentialism is the view that categories have an underlying reality or true nature that one cannot observe directly but that gives an object its identity. ([Location 52](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=52)) - according to essentialism, categories (such as "boy," "girl," or "intelligence") are real, in several senses: they are discovered (rather than invented), they are natural (rather than artificial), they predict other properties, and they point to natural discontinuities in the world. ([Location 53](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=53)) - I contend that essentialism is a pervasive, persistent reasoning bias that affects human categorization in profound ways. It is deeply ingrained in our conceptual systems, emerging at a very young age across highly varied cultural contexts. Our essentializing bias is not directly taught, nor does it simply reduce to a direct reading of cues that are "out there" in the world. Most decidedly, it is neither a late achievement nor a sophisticated one. ([Location 90](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=90)) - they apply most powerfully to natural kinds' (including animal and plant species, and natural substances such as water or gold) and social kinds (including race and gender), but not artifacts made by people (such as tables and socks). ([Location 94](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=94)) - I suggest that essentialism does not require language, but language is one important cue children use when trying to figure out when and what to essentialize. ([Location 96](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=96)) - developmental dichotomies (e.g., concrete to abstract, simple to complex, surface to deep, etc.) mischaracterize the nature of cognitive development. ([Location 103](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=103)) - In the domain of biology, an essence would be whatever quality is thought to remain unchanging as an organism grows, reproduces, and undergoes morphological transformations (baby to adult human; caterpillar to butterfly). In the domain of chemistry, an essence would be whatever quality is thought to remain unchanging as a substance changes shape, size, or state (e.g., from solid to liquid to gas). ([Location 116](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=116)) - Psychological essentialism entails that people believe in the existence of essences, not that people have detailed knowledge regarding the content of essences, nor that essences exist. ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B000VDO69C&location=288))