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.