(philosophy) The theory that human beings are by nature good and that evil is the product of society.
(education) The doctrine that there are certain traditional concepts, values, and skills that are essential to society and should be taught to all students.
A lifestyle that seeks to minimize nonessentials in order to focus on what is important.
“I think we need to sophisticate our understanding of cultural essentialisms, including gender ones, because it might help us deal better with issues of resistance.”
“Those who believe motherhood to be the unchangeable essence of the female are known as essentialists.”
“The essentialists are currently dominated by biological-oriented researchers who link sexual orientation to genetic, hormonal, and neuroanatomical factors.”
“So the essentialists were right after all, one might conclude on learning that in many species there's evidence of sexual orientation and even same-sex pair-bonding.”