The developmental and evolutionary origins of psychological essentialism lie in sortal object individuation.
Cimpian & Salomon (C&S) present promising steps towards understanding the cognitive underpinnings of adult essentialism. However, their approach is less convincing regarding ontogenetic and evolutionary aspects. In contrast to C&S's claim, the so-called inherence heuristic, though perhaps vital in adult reasoning, seems an implausible candidate for the developmental and evolutionary foundations of psychological essentialism. A more plausible candidate is kind-based object individuation that already embodies essentialist modes of thinking and that is present in infants and nonhuman primates.
Department of Developmental Psychology,University of Göttingen,D-37073 Göttingen,Germany.hannes.rakoczy@psych.uni-goettingen.dewww.psych.uni-goettingen.de/en/development/team/rakoczy-hannes.
Hannes
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Rakoczy
Institute of Psychology, University of Bern,CH-3012 Bern,Switzerland.trix.cacchione@psy.unibe.chhttp://www.psy.unibe.ch/entwicklung/content/fvp/team/cacchione/index_eng.html.
Trix
T
Cacchione
D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008128:Logic