mentalism

n. a position that insists on the reality of explicitly mental phenomena, such as thinking and feeling. It holds that mental phenomena cannot be reduced to physical or physiological phenomena (see reductionism). The term is often used as a synonym for idealism, although some forms of mentalism may hold that mental events, although not reducible to physical substances, are nonetheless grounded in physical processes. Most modern cognitive theories are examples of this latter type of mentalism. Compare eliminativism; identity theory. See also conscious mentalism. —mentalist adj.

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Psychology term of the day

September 1st 2024

high chromaticity

see color purity.