Essence is the descriptive word for what makes something what it is.

It is a largely philosophical term, not often discussed in polite conversations. Students in an Introduction to Philosophy class is where most people first encounter the term(?).

In Exploring the Gap between Science and Religion I proposed our nature (essence) is that of definer.

I wrote an updated proposal that people are bearers of meaning in Volume 7: An Observer Centric Philosophy of Science, then renamed the volume to Who We are as People.

The Exploring the Gap Series now documents how our complex brains enables our complex language and culture, which combined makes up our complex essence. This essence applies to all the philosophical topics/books in the series.

Our brains compared to that of Great Ape Brains shows our essence based on increased capacity/

Emergence = The whole is more than the sum of the parts. Therefore, the highly complex brains of people is the enables complex language-related capacities of people.

Renamed Volume 7

Originally, Volume 7 was titled “An Observer-centric Philosophy of Science”. The idea for this content arose when I noticed that the current the field of Philosophy of Science seemed to ignore our role as observers.

As I neared completion of the first draft for sections 1 and 2, it became clear that what I was really writing was an expanded thesis on humans as definers. After several weeks of contemplating a renaming, I decided on What We are as People.

Why this title? I wanted it to be a universal statement about our nature, without any unintended narrowing the essential attributes which would excludd gender, skin color, age, cultural heritage, religious beliefs, or the era in which people lived.

What We are As People will now have four sections (if, of course I ever finish it — snicker–):

1. The Observer Observing
2. People as Bears of Meaning
3. Perhaps the Hard Problem of Consciousness is not so Hard After All
4. The Complexity of Our Nature

This change in perspective required an update to the conceptual content map of the Exploring the Gap Series.