However some historians of science have questioned how much influence Plato's essentialism had on natural philosophy by stating that many philosophers after Plato believed that species might be capable of transformation and that the idea that biologic species were fixed and possessed unchangeable essential characteristics did not become important until the beginning of biological taxonomy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Porén, algúns historiadores da ciencia cuestionaron o peso da influencia que tivo o esencialismo de Platón na filosofía natural ao indicaren que moitos filósofos posteriores a Platón crían que as especies terían a capacidade de transformación, e que a idea de que as especies biolóxicas eran fixas e posuían características esencialmente invariables non adquiriu importancia ata o comezo da taxonomía biolóxica nos séculos XVII e XVIII.