Abstract

Philosophy since Nietzsche and Heidegger has been averse to essentialism and considered to be old-fashioned and outmoded in the mainstream flow of debates. And it is often understood that essentialism cannot get along well with freedom and creativity insisted in liberal education. In this article, I discuss three types of essentialism in Edith Stein’s essential strands of thought by explicating the universal structure of human person, the individuality of each person with reference to the inner core of each person, and gender essentialism but always in consonant with the interests of liberal education. Though Stein is an essentialist, I argue that it is the spirit dimension of human person, which she delineates, that enables her to underscore freedom and indeterminism. I attempt to put Stein’s philosophical anthropology in the layout of epistemological and ontological settings paving the way for evolving integral education with huge consideration for her tripartite dimension of human beings namely the psychic, the spiritual and the transcendental.