Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Philosophy The doctrine, intermediate between nominalism and realism, that universals exist only within the mind and have no external or substantial reality.
  • noun A school of abstract art or an artistic doctrine that is concerned with the intellectual engagement of the viewer through conveyance of an idea and negation of the importance of the art object itself.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The psychological doctrine that the meaning of a general class-name, as horse, red, etc., can be fully represented in thought or be actually present to consciousness: opposed both to realism and to nominalism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Metaph.) A theory, intermediate between realism and nominalism, that the mind has the power of forming for itself general conceptions of individual or single objects.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The art movement towards conceptual art.
  • noun philosophy A theory, intermediate between realism and nominalism, that the mind has the power of forming for itself general conceptions of individual or single objects.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the doctrine that the application of a general term to various objects indicates the existence of a mental entity that mediates the application

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

conceptual +‎ -ism

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Examples

  • So we might cautiously admit to the correctness of "conceptualism" -- that anything we say about the objective or real features of the world in inevitably couched within a set of concepts or categories, and there is no uniquely best set of concepts on the basis of which to analyze experience.

    Archive 2008-03-01 Daniel Little 2008

  • So we might cautiously admit to the correctness of "conceptualism" -- that anything we say about the objective or real features of the world in inevitably couched within a set of concepts or categories, and there is no uniquely best set of concepts on the basis of which to analyze experience.

    Concepts and the world Daniel Little 2008

  • A leading figure in the movement known as conceptualism, Kosuth sought to give the idea of a work of art and how it could be presented (in language or in reproduction) a status that was equivalent in value to its realization in material form.

    unknown title 2009

  • Such a technocratic approach indicates to me doctrinalism (maybe even formalism) run amok; there's a crying need for some "conceptualism".

    Balkinization 2007

  • If you suggest a movement in the arts please try to narrow it down a little bit - 'conceptualism' is far, far too broad, for example.

    Ask MetaFilter SebastianKnight 2009

  • If your ears go back, like a frightened horse, at the word 'conceptualism' when applied to modern art, you may not be very pleased to know that this is a hot topic in landscape design at the moment.

    Spectator Live 2008

  • "conceptualism," and ready, like Protagoras, to show us how man is the measure of all things and how the individual is the measure of man.

    Suspended Judgments Essays on Books and Sensations John Cowper Powys 1917

  • That kind of conceptualism is of a piece with the various "philosophies" mathematicians ” and scientists ” espouse not as a result of argument and reflection but as, one suspects, a means of deflecting them.

    Facing Up to Realism Farrell, Robert 1982

  • Just as daunting is judging whether Cheng's paintings and drawings successfully conflate the artistic conceptualism that informs her work with the vibrantly painted forms through which her conceptualism is realized.

    G. Roger Denson: In Taipei and Hong Kong, Emily Cheng Bridges Science and Faith G. Roger Denson 2011

  • In their stark conceptualism, Cheng's paintings appear anything but sentimental or unifying.

    G. Roger Denson: In Taipei and Hong Kong, Emily Cheng Bridges Science and Faith G. Roger Denson 2011

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