conscious mentalism
any theory that posits the reality of purely mental phenomena, such as thinking, feeling, desiring, preferring, and (particularly) intention, holding that these mental phenomena are the chief causes of behavior and that they are available to the conscious mind. The rise of behaviorism was largely a reaction against mentalism as an explanation for behavior. Although most forms of conscious mentalism hold that mental phenomena have a nonmaterial existence, some recent mentalistic positions have been materialistic, accepting that mental states and processes have their origin in physical states and processes. Compare eliminativism; epiphenomenalism; reductionism.