ABSTRACT
Human beings are grouped into kinds in the human and life sciences, but also in policy. A common complaint, leveled at social sciences, gender studies and anthropology alike, is that they are not scientific enough. This chapter discusses that the central question about how empirical knowledge is at all possible in the human sciences depends on the existence of human kinds. Much of psychology is these days focused around the harmful effects of human categorization. This is perhaps unsurprising given the developments over the past century. Social and cognitive psychologists have investigated what, on the level of the individual, prompts the development of essentialist ideas and how it can contribute to discrimination, implicit bias and harmful stereotyping. The operationalization of essentialism often reflects a scientifically outdated view about the basis of human categorization.
