The Illusion of Essence and the Reality Beneath

When we don't fully understand something, we often project a sense of hidden essence onto it, a substantial core that seems to lie beneath the surface. This perception is a product of our own emotions and needs, not an inherent quality of the object itself. As our understanding deepens, this imagined core vanishes, revealing a reality that is sometimes stranger and less exciting than our projections. The Madhyamaka philosophers recognized that this attachment to essence is a form of existential clinging, not just an intellectual error. This is why it persists across generations, even among intelligent people.

Throughout history, this pattern is evident in various domains. Reverence or fear towards an object or person often stems from our projections of something transcendent. Once truly known, these projections dissolve, revealing the mundane reality. For instance, the nation-state is just individuals following rules, not an inherent authority. Similarly, early modern philosophy dissolved scholastic substantial forms into particles and motion, and contemporary physics views elementary particles as field excitations, not solid matter.

David Hume's view on causation exemplifies this. He noted that we never observe a 'cause' itself, only the succession of events. The necessity we feel is our own projection. Kant, influenced by Hume, reestablished causation as a condition for objective experience, preserving the essence in a more sophisticated form. This reflects a broader tendency to relocate threatened essences to safer, more abstract realms.

Buddhism's insight that objects lack fixed cores aligns with existentialist thought: 'Existence precedes essence.' This compulsion to find essences persists in modern debates about AI consciousness and understanding. The essence is often relocated to subjective experience, beyond external description. Yet, the real focus should be on processes and consequences, as seen in how law and regulation address corporate power. AI will likely follow this pattern, shifting from questions of understanding to practical outcomes and ethical alignment.

The history of ideas reveals a persistent struggle against our tendency to add unnecessary layers of meaning. These layers seem deep and mysterious but are ultimately superfluous. The challenge is to recognize and move beyond them, focusing on what is truly there.