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It is not the case that qualities that are essential to human nature are essential to human existence
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Reasons For
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1.
Essential nature describes what makes something belong to a category; existence requires only material instantiation, not all categorical properties.
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2.
Humans with severe cognitive disabilities lack some allegedly essential rational capacities yet undeniably exist as humans.
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3.
Essence is contested and mind-dependent; existence is objective. A quality can be philosophically essential without being existentially necessary.
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Reasons Against
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Reason against
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1.
Essential qualities define what something is; without them, the thing ceases to be that kind of thing.
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2.
Humans exist as members of the human species; whatever is essential to being human is necessary for human existence.
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3.
If a quality is non-essential to human nature, humans could exist without it, making it contingent rather than essential.
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