Conceptualism

For the postmodern art movement, see Conceptual art.
Peter Abelard, a French philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician, put forward the theory of conceptualism.[1]

In metaphysics, conceptualism is a theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind.[2] Intermediate between nominalism and realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies their presence in particulars outside the mind's perception of them.[3] Conceptualism is anti-realist about abstract objects, just like immanent realism is (their difference being that immanent realism accepts there are mind-independent facts about whether universals are instantiated).[4]

  1. ^ Laos, Nicolas (2015). The Metaphysics of World Order: A Synthesis of Philosophy, Theology, and Politics. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 37. ISBN 9781498201025.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Conceptualism was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference universals was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Neil A. Manson, Robert W. Barnard (eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Metaphysics, Bloomsbury, 2014, p. 95.