Teleological Essentialism

Rosé, David; Nichols, Shaun

doi:10.1111/cogs.12725

Cited by 36 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…This might be related to the normative and teleological nature of essentialism. If people indeed see essences in the context of purposes (Rose & Nichols, 2019) and these purposes are normatively good (De Freitas, Tobia, Newman & Knobe, 2017, p. 397), then it makes perfect sense that a human being should be viewed as essentially moral and well disposed towards others, and thus capable of forming good quality interpersonal relationships. Well-functioning society is, after all, naturally desirable for any social species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The answer to the question why social traits are more important than other kinds of traits might lie in the normative and teleological nature of essentialism. People seem to think about the essences of various entities in terms of their purpose, a telos (Rose & Nichols, 2019), and, at the same time, the traits that are believed to support personal identity are predominantly normatively good (De Freitas, Tobia, Newman & Knobe, 2017, p. 398). This logic that connects normativity and teleology could also be applied to human beings: if the purpose of the music band is to make good-quality music and the purpose of scientific papers is to carry valuable scientific information, then the purpose of a person is to be morally good (De Freitas, Tobia, Newman & Knobe, 2017, p. 397).…”

Section: Current Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

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My friend’s true self: Children’s concept of personal identity

Košová

Kopecký

Oulovský

et al. 2021

Philosophical Psychology

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Our study explores the folk concept of personal identity in the developmental context. Two hundred and seventeen Czech children participated in an interview study based on a hypothetical scenario about a sudden change in their friend, someone they know, or some other unspecified person. The children were asked to judge to what extent particular changes (from 6 categories of traits) would change the identity core of their friend or some other person on a 7-point scale. We introduced both positive and negative versions of the changes. Our data suggest that children considered moral traits connected to interpersonal relationships crucial for preserving personal identity. Memory connected to personal experiences also scored highly. On the other hand, a change in physical appearance seemed to have the least important impact on personal identity. Negative changes turned out to have a significantly

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

My friend’s true self: Children’s concept of personal identity

Košová

Kopecký

Oulovský

et al. 2021

Philosophical Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…But there may be other pathways to essentialism as well. For instance, Rose and Nichols (2019) recently found that essentialist beliefs can reflect the ultimate purpose, or telos, of a category. This work on teleological beliefs investigated non-social natural kinds (e.g., spiders), but it is possible that telos is another pathway to essentialist beliefs about social groups in addition to biology and shared values.…”

Section: Essentialism As a General Heuristicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value-based Essentialism: Essentialist Beliefs About Social Groups With Shared Values

Bailey¹,

Knobe²,

Newman³

2020

Preprint

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Psychological essentialism has played an important role in social psychology, informing influential theories of stereotyping and prejudice as well as questions about accountability for wrongdoing and the possibility for change. Existing research has shown that people often see a social group as having a deep, underlying essence when they understand that group in terms of an underlying biological cause. Here we ask whether people sometimes also essentialize groups that they do not think of as biological. More specifically, we investigate the possibility of “value-based essentialism” in which people think of certain social groups in terms of an underlying essence, but that essence is understood as a value. Study 1 explored beliefs about a wide range of social groups and found that both biological groups (e.g., women) and value-based groups (e.g., Christian) elicited similar general essentialist beliefs relative to mere social categories (e.g., English-speakers). In Studies 2-4, participants who read about a group either as being based in biology or in shared values reported higher essentialist beliefs compared to a control condition. Because biological essentialism about social groups has been connected to a number of downstream consequences, we also investigated two test cases concerning value-based essentialism. In Study 3, both the biological essence and value-based essence conditions increased inductive generalizations (related to stereotyping) compared to control, but in Study 4 only the biological condition reduced blame for wrongdoing. Together these findings support a broader theoretical framework for essentialism about social groups that incorporates values-based essence.

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“…This way actions and tools are interpreted as means toward ends, which are goals of actions. Such functional, or teleological, representations are present in the written record since antiquity (Aristotle), ubiquitous across cognitive domains in humans (Kelemen & Rosset 2009;Rose & Nichols 2019;Talanquer 2007) and evident from early on in human infancy (Gergely & Csibra 2003;Hernik & Csibra 2015;Liu et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%