Essence

To give the essence of an entity is to specify the peculiar kind of attributes that characterize the entity and in virtue of which the entity is what it is: Essence, in other words, is the summation of the defining attributes of an entity. For example, an object, X, is a chair and not a bed because of certain characteristics that it has and that a bed lacks. In the philosophical literature, the broadest sense of classifying objects into kinds, via a consideration of their essences, is known as the problem of universals (Staniland 1972).

There are two distinct kinds of essences that characterize two different kinds of entities in African philosophical and religious systems: spiritual and material. Spiritual essence characterizes spiritual entities. The entities include the Supreme Being, traditional divinities, and the souls of departed ancestors. Material essence characterizes all spatiotemporal objects, including the human body. These categories of essences are intimately connected....