Essentialism is the concept that living things may be classified according to their fundamental characteristics. So while a bat may fly and a whale may swim, the bat is not classified as a bird and the whale is not classified as a fish because the more essential characteristic is that they are both mammals and so are categorized together. Essentialism comes originally from Plato. As such, it can be linked to Plato's idealism, in which there exist ideals of which earthly realities are just imperfect examples. Darwin's great strength was the application of a naturalistic mechanism that has tremendous explanatory power in linking various types of living things ultimately to common ancestors through transitional types and extinction. When combined with the theory of natural selection it can explain the difference between homologies (common features relevant to classification) and analogies (common features not relevant to classification). The former are relics of common ancestors; the latter have evolved independently to produce superficially similar body parts.
All the...difficulties in classification are explained...on the view that the natural system is founded on descent with modification: that the characters which naturalists consider as showing true affinity between any two or more species, are those which have been inherited from a common parent, and in so far, all true classification is genealogical; that community of descent is the hidden bond which naturalists have been unconsciously seeking, and not some unknown plan of creation, or the enunciation of general propositions, and the mere putting together and separating objects more or less alike.
Darwin thought the argument from classification was so decisive that it could overcome the lack of evidence. "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."
Can it really be that simple? Yes--if you're the one writing the dictionary.
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