Conceptualism

thumb|Peter Abelard, a French philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician, put forward the theory of conceptualism. In metaphysics, conceptualism is a theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between nominalism and realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies their presence in particulars outside the mind's perception of them. Conceptualism is anti-realist about abstract objects, just like immanent realism is (their difference being that i

hypothetical internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality