Definition of "conceptualism" []

• 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. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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