Non-Essentialists

Non-Essentialists Non-Essentialists concentrate on what can be discovered empirically and understood rationally. They view with skepticism anything beyond the scope of **empirical** investigation and **rational** explanation. Non-Essentialists believe in a **statically ordered** universe where good must be discovered so that future outcomes can be predicted. They can neither confirm nor deny that human beings have an immortal human rational soul because this is beyond empirical investigation. A human being has a conscious **mind**, a fact that is **self-evident**, and this can be studied. Non-Essentialists study the mind as a product of the body. Two views of humans have emerged. The **mechanist** holds that a human individual is an organic machine reacting to electrical and or chemical processes in the body. The **behaviorist** holds that a human individual is formed by and reacts to environment. These views are not mutually exclusive forming a continuum. Initially, Non-Essentialists denied the human free **will**. The presence of free will can be difficult to account for when only empirical methods are employed because the study views consciousness as a product of physical conditions.
 * Non-Essentialism ** is the primary cosmology and view that metaphysical questions of essence and existence cannot be settled.

People of modern times largely reflect this view. Non-Essentialists focus on what can be proven because what is proven is true. Tolerance extends dissenting viewpoints so long as they are supportable to some extent by reason. Happiness consists in using our knowledge of nature to reduce or eliminate the things that cause unhappiness.