Essentialism

[Original Dutch article published on Sep 30, 2003; English version is due to google translate and some minor changes] Edward Said is dead. Last Wednesday he lost his battle with cancer. The influence of this Palestinian writer in all areas of the social sciences of the last quarter century is immense. Many will remember him from Delhi to Dar Es Salaam, from Paris to Chicago; many will also write …

The first question: “By saying that there exist “Western” and “Indian” cultures aren’t you somehow essentializing cultures into monoliths?” I do not see how. When we talk of ’the human species’ (in the singular), or about ’life’ (again in the singular) while doing evolutionary biology, we do not presuppose or imply that either of the two is a monolithic entity, do we? In fact, diversity is a …

I have had difficulties in understanding the use and meaning of some words, especially ’essentialism’ and its cognates. Here are some uses of “essentialism” I am familiar with. One uses ’essences’ to designate some basic or fundamental or determining properties of an object, as in: “Water is essentially H2O”. Here the claim is that some liquid is water if and only if it has the chemical structure …