eliminativism
n. the view that mental states, such as beliefs, feelings, and intentions, are not necessary to a scientific account of human behavior. These are regarded as the stuff of folk psychology, informal and intuitive concepts by which human beings offer accounts of their behaviors. According to the eliminativist view, when truly scientific psychology progresses far enough to replace folk psychology, the explanatory language of mental states will probably be replaced by a language of biological states. Also called eliminative materialism. See also identity theory; reductionism. Compare conscious mentalism; mentalism. —eliminativist
adj.