RE: re cultural essentialism

[Steve Gabosch <bebop101@comcast.net>]

I suspect our own Andy Blunden wrote the entry copied below on
Essentialism in the Encyclopedia of Marxism on the Marxist Internet
Archives.  He captures my general understanding of the term and its
origins and offers an thoughtful discussion.  Googling around on
this term shows it has obtained a variety of uses and meanings.  It
also has a history, for example, in educational philosophy in the form
"educational essentialism."  I include this as a reminder
of how words often travel multiple historical threads.  

- Steve


http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/e/s.htm

Essentialism

?Essentialism? is an ambiguous word, like the term ?Essence? from which
it is derived, generally depending on whether the Platonic/Aristotlean or
Hegelian genealogy is referred to. The word was introduced in modern
times by Karl Popper in his 1945 work The Open Society. Essentialism is
the assertion that there exists some meaning behind what is immediate
given to sensuous perception (phenomenon). Popper took the meaning of
?essence? from the Aristotlean genealogy but held that meaning was
constructed by institutions and social practices, and it was the business
of science to construct definitions reflecting these objectively existing
?essences?.

Generally-speaking, ?essentialism? is used with a negative connotation in
contrast to subjectivist constructivism in feminist or postmodern social
theory. That is to say, ?essentialism? is taken to mean that there is an
essential meaning of something that is not given in perception
(perception being taken to mean sensuous contemplation), in contrast to
constructivism which is taken to mean that meaning is constructed by the
subject in practical or critical activity. Broadly speaking the term has
the same meaning as ?metaphysics? had for positivism.

For Marxism, constructivism and essentialism are not mutually exclusive,
since the meaning of essence is taken from the Hegelian genealogy rather
than the subjective idealist current and is understood as social and
historical, critical activity. Thus, all social and cognitive processes
do have a meaning which is indeed ?constructed? by the subject, but the
subject is a social subject, rather than an individual, whose activity is
socially and historically conditioned. In line with the Hegelian
genealogy of philosophical terms in Marxism, the ?essence? which is
revealed by social practice is the dialectical unfolding of the thing
through successively deeper and deeper meanings. Essentialism then is
concerned not with some final essence which can never be revealed, but
rather is concerned with the process of revealing ever deeper
meanings.

?Essentialism? is often taken to mean the rejection of the possibility of
different, opposed meanings being attached to a thing. However, for
Marxism such opposing, contradictory meanings are the very nature of
essential development.

 

*********************************

from
http://www.fact-index.com/e/ed/educational_essentialism.html

Essentialists believe that children should learn traditional basic
subjects. Essentialists believe that these should be learned thoroughly
and rigorously. An essentialist program normally teaches children
progressively, from less complex skills to more complex. 

An Essentialist will usually teach some set subjects similar to Reading,
Writing, Literature, Foreign Languages, History, Math, Science, Art, and
Music. 

William Bagley
(1874-1946)
was an important historical Essentialist.


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