conceptualistn.adj.

1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers v. vi. 478 That universality, which the Realists held to be in things themselves, Nominalists in names only, They held to be..in our conceptions. On this account they were called Conceptualists.

1792 D. Stewart Elem. Philos. Human Mind I. iv. 191 In the very slight sketch which I have given of the controversy between the Nominalists and the Realists about the existence of universals, I have taken no notice of an intermediate sect called the Conceptualists; whose distinguishing tenet is said to have been, that the mind has a power of forming general conceptions.

1843 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic I. i. vi. 145 The opinion of the Conceptualists, that a proposition is the expression of a relation between two ideas.

a1856 W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) II. xxxvi. 317 The older Conceptualists..assert that it is possible to conceive a triangle neither equilateral nor rectangular,—but both at once.

1949 Mind 58 292 According to the conceptualists, like Locke, universality attaches only to our ideas or conceptions and the possibility of using general names depends therefore upon our ability to form abstract ideas.

2006 Proc. & Addr. Amer. Philos. Assoc. 80 93 The old and recent debates on Cartesian essences have focused on the question of whether Descartes is a Platonist or a conceptualist.

1970 London Mag. Oct. 54 Situationalists, Dadaists, conceptualists and their attendant publicists like to insist that their work be considered in refined isolation.

1983 R. Copeland & M. Cohen What is Dance? iv. 233 The post-modern choreographers were deeply influenced by the objective, impersonal theories and practices of the contemporary art world (particularly the work of so-called minimalists and conceptualists).

1997 Daily Tel. 18 June 4/2 After reflection, critics might ponder why the shortlisted artists are all ‘conceptualists’, who do strange things with people and objects, and why the art of painting is neglected.

2004 New Yorker 4 Oct. 83/2 Unlike legions of conceptualists who have bored us with variations on the Duchampian mantra that art is a mental act,..Cattelan has given us a succession of startling and unforgettable visual images.

1839 H. Hallam Introd. Lit. Europe III. 115 He seems..to have held the conceptualist theory in the strictest manner, admitting the reality of universal ideas even as images present to the mind.

1856 National Rev. Apr. 498 The mediatorial theology of Christendom,—a theology which never could have sprung up if our present conceptualist and nominalist notions had always prevailed.

1884 Athenæum 14 June 752/3 The conceptualist school which once ruled English logic under the influence of Hamilton and Mansel.

1919 N. A. Duddington tr. N. O. Lossky Intuitive Basis Knowl. ii. viii. 310 The conceptualist view of the problem of universals must either involve an infinite regress or have recourse to realism.

1951 J. Holloway Lang. & Intelligence ii. 16 Two theories of the nature of universals will be considered, the conceptualist belief that they are mental entities, and the in re form of realism which maintains that they inhere in objects and are so apprehended by the mind.

1998 Philos. Stud. 89 174 In addition to giving us a conceptualist account of universals, [Descartes]..also offers a diagnosis of how the realist goes wrong in positing universals outside our thought.

1973 Irish Times 17 Apr. 10/1 Process art, Conceptualist art and Information art: in Dublin we're still at the Minimalist stage.

1985 T. Albright Art in San Francisco Bay Area 204/1 As conceptualist activities proliferated, Conceptualism, like so many ‘revolutions’ before it, mellowed.

1989 Toronto Star (Nexis) 6 Oct. d15 For a diehard minimalist/conceptualist painter such as Kennedy, the work is a means of addressing art issues as well as social concerns.

2001 B. Broady In this Block there lives Slag 222 Such things were far beyond her, like poetry and conceptualist art.