CONCEPTUALISM is a doctrine in some sense intermediate between Realism and Nominalism. The Realist maintains that genera and species exist independently; that besides individual objects and the general notion from them in the mind, there exist certain ideas the pattern after which the single objects are fashioned; and that the general notion in our mind is the counterpart of the idea without it. The Nominalist says that nothing exists but things, and names of things; and that universals are mere names. The Conceptualist assigns to universal an existence which, as opposed to real or nominal, may be called logical or psychological, that is independent of individual objects, but dependent upon the mind of the thinking subject, in which they exist as notions or conceptions (Thomson, Outline of Laws of Thought, 2nd ed., p. 112; 3rd ed., p. 126).— V. RELATION, NOMINALISM.
