Essentialism is the view that objects have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity. In early Western thought, Plato's idealism held that all things have such an essence—an idea or form. In Categories, Aristotle similarly proposed that all objects have a substance that, as George Lakoff put it, make the thing what it is, and without which it would be not that kind of thing. The contrary view—non-essentialism—denies the need to posit such an essence.