actualistn.adj.
/ˈak(t)ʃʊəlɪst/, /ˈak(t)ʃ(ᵿ)lɪst/, U.S. /ˈæk(t)ʃ(əw)ələst/ A. n.
1. Geology. A person who believes that the geological past can be explained in terms of processes observable in the present; a proponent of actualism (actualism n. 3). Cf. uniformitarian n. 1. Now chiefly historical.In early use (by misunderstanding): a person who, in denying the cataclysmic changes envisaged by the catastrophists, supposes the earth and its fauna to have remained substantially the same throughout geological history.
ΚΠ
1853 J. Marcou Geol. Map U.S. i. 55 The school of actualists..denies all researches..which have been made upon the epochs anterior to the tertiary system.
1959 R. Hooykaas Nat. Law & Divine Miracle i. i. 12 The causes alleged ‘are all still in operation’—and this of course entitles him to be called an ‘actualist’.
1970 Isis 61 12 Scrope was an ardent actualist but no uniformitarian.
1990 R. J. Huggett Catastrophism ii. 25 Whether Conybeare was an actualist or a non-actualist depends on where the chain of geological causes is cut.
2. Chiefly Philosophy. A person who advocates the theory that only what is actual exists; a proponent of actualism (actualism n. 1). Also: a practitioner or advocate of realism, a realist.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > materialism > [noun] > realism > adherent of
realist1832
actualista1866
a1866 J. Grote Treat. Moral Ideals (1876) xv. 375 To which the actualist ever answers, The moral world..is given by human constitution and circumstance.
1887 Harper's Mag. Jan. 324/1 In his first essay in the field of fiction he turns out an actualist, whose first wish seems to be truth to his facts and the meaning of them.
1949 Amer. Hist. Rev. 54 581 An actualist, he treats of politics empirically.
1996 R. Stout Things that happen because they Should ii. 60 Unless we are actualists, we want to allow that something may have a certain capacity without that capacity being fulfilled in a process.
B. adj.
Philosophy and Geology. Characterized by or advocating actualism.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > materialism > [adjective] > of other doctrines and their advocates
objective1620
actualista1875
substantialist1878
activistic1907
activist1908
neo-realistic1909
neo-realist1912
new realist1947
a1875 J. Hinton Philos. & Relig. (1881) viii. 248 Stoicism and the actualist ethics are at the extremes of oppositeness.
1888 Catholic World Jan. 464 Determine the present state of the controversy between the actualist or uniformitarian school and the school which maintains a beginning very different from the actual order of things.
1994 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) May 68/3 We use, with appropriate caution..a method called actualist; in other words, we believe that the varieties of animals or plants we are considering acted then as they act today.
2002 J. Cruickshank Realism & Sociol. v. 96 This results in what Bhaskar..refers to as an ‘actualist’ ontology. What this means is that any account of (natural) being must confine itself to propositions concerning actual observed, or observable, states of affairs.
2004 Jrnl. Coastal Res. 20 155/2 The system of approach..is descriptive, actualist, and only genetic in a modifying sense.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.adj.1853