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ESSENCE AGAINST IDENTITY
Author(s) -
BRENNAN TERESA
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
metaphilosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1467-9973
pISSN - 0026-1068
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9973.1996.tb00869.x
Subject(s) - essentialism , identity (music) , argumentation theory , epistemology , identification (biology) , politics , sociology , transformation (genetics) , philosophy , political science , aesthetics , law , genetics , biology , botany , gene
This paper traces how the concern with political transformation is central both to arguments for and against essentialism. But while pro‐essential argumentation is concerned with identity, as a condition of change, anti‐essentialist reasoning sees change as dependent on the historical mutability of identity. Using Freud, this paper attempts to reconcile these positions through focusing first, on identification rather than identity; and second, on an unorthodox concept of essence, stressing its energetic commonality between beings.