[mod. f. as prec. + -IST: (perh. a. 17–18th–c. F. conceptualiste).] One who holds the doctrine of CONCEPTUALISM (in sense 1 or 2): esp. in History of Philosophy, applied to those who held opinions intermediate between those of the Realists and the Nominalists.
(In med.L. called Conceptistæ: c. 1475, Petrus Nigri, Clipeus Thomistarum (1504) 56 a (Prantl). Una opinio est eorum qui dicunt quod universale est conceptus mentis, et isti nominantur conceptistæ.)
Also, applied by Mill to one who holds that Logic is exclusively concerned with concepts.
1785. Reid, Int. Powers, V. vi. Wks. 406/1. That universality which the Realists held to be in things themselves, Nominalists in names alone, they [a third party] held to be … in our conceptions. On this account they were called Conceptualists.
c. 1837. Hamilton, Lect. Metaph. (1859), II. xxxvi. 316. The older Conceptualists [e.g., Locke, etc.] assert that it is possible to conceive a triangle neither equilateral nor rectangular,—but both at once.
1846. Mill, Logic, I. vi. § 1. The opinion of the Conceptualists, that a proposition is the expression of a relation between two ideas. Ibid., I. vi. § 3, note. Where a Conceptualist says that a name or a proposition expresses our Idea of a thing, I should generally say (instead of our Idea) our Knowledge, or Belief, concerning the thing itself.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr. (1872), IV. 365. John of Salisbury, in his Polycraticus, is a manifest, if not avowed Conceptualist.
attrib. 1858. J. Martineau, Studies Chr., 173. 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.
Hence Conceptualistic a., pertaining to, or of the nature of, conceptualism.
In mod. Dicts.
