Essentialism?

Yes "idealism" is used in English. I have seen "essentialism" used in philosophy writing as well.

I gather the two terms are closely related. I may be wrong but I gather "essentialism" is more associated with Aristotle and idealism with Plato, both as their theories for how to approach the issue of the existence (or not) or "universals."

As to essentialism I need to verify my memory but I thought we had a reference to an article by Richard Dawkins which references this issue. I will look for the link.

This is the article I was thinking about: https://www.edge.org/contributors/w…-for-retirement

I would have to review the whole article but I am thinking Epicurus would agree with Dawkins criticism of Aristotles position. This is related to the issue of color discussed in Lucretius.

UPDATE: Looks like the link has changed:

Edge.org