The Philosophical Origins of Biological Essentialism

John Wilkins (University of Melbourne), John Wilkins, John Wilkins (University of Sydney, University of Melbourne)

Abstract

In biology it is often held that prior to Darwin, Aristotelian essentialism held sway. In this talk I will argue that in fact it never did, and that the very notion of Aristotelian essentialism was a mid-20th century invention out of general metaphysics and philosophy of language, and that a scientific essentialism was misattributed, from comments of Quine and Popper, to biology, particularly taxonomy and systematics. I will then consider to what extent an essentialism is in fact a problem in biology.