 Stein, following both Husserl and Scheler, distinguishes between the generic or universal essence of a human being (the “species” – what all humans have in common) and the individual essences of individual human beings. Explicitly departing from Aquinas, Stein defends the concept of the essence of the individual, the differentiation of individuals through spiritual matter, and the idea of the “unfolding” or “blooming” (Entfaltung; 1931: 139[209]) of the soul from its core or seed. In Finite and Eternal Being, Stein discusses the “individual essence” (individuelles Wesen) of Socrates (1950/2006: 142[157]), a determinate form distinct from the general, specific form of being-human. The form of Socrates unfolds within specific possibilities contained in its quite determinate essence. The real Socrates may be different from the man depicted by Plato. “Being-Socrates” and “being-the-Platonic-Socrates” are distinct essences, different possible “forms” of unfolding of what Socrates is (1950/2006: 142–143[157–158]). The essence unfolds itself in its faculties and capacities (later called its “potentiality”). Stein distinguishes between “unfolding” (Entfaltung) and “development” (Entwicklung). A person unfolds from an essence that is already there. Development refers to other kinds of movement, including the Darwinian idea of evolution, with which Stein (and also Scheler) was broadly familiar and which she discussed in her anthropology.