Essentialism: A Wittgensteinian Critique (SUNY series in Logic and Language)

"This book develops Wittgenstein's account of language, and uses it to criticize a number of current philosophers and their writings. Wittgenstein argued that the act of our using a single expression to label a number of different things is no evidence that these things possess a single essence. Hallett identifies a number of current essentialists, and argues that they have simply misunderstood the workings of language. He provides an explanation why philosophers persist in this mistake, and proposes therapies to get philosophers to stop making it." -- John T. Kearns, State University of New York at Buffalo

"This book is valuable for its willingness to confront the comprehensive presence of essentialism in contemporary philosophical thought, and to confront it from an intelligent and discriminating Wittgensteinian perspective." -- James C. Edwards, Furman University