conceptualists

Conceptualists are adherents of conceptualism, a term used in philosophy and art. The word may refer to supporters of the philosophical position that concepts or universals exist primarily as mental constructs, or to artists associated with conceptual art whose work prioritizes ideas over material form.

In philosophy, conceptualism is a theory about the status of universals and general terms. It holds that general terms are mental concepts created by abstraction, and that universals do not exist independently in the external world. This positions conceptualism between realism (universals exist independently) and nominalism (universals are merely names). Medieval scholars developed the view as a way to account for how people form general terms without appealing to separate universals. John Buridan (c. 1300–1358) is commonly cited as a major advocate, with other scholastics contributing to a tradition that influenced later discussions of mind, language, and perception. In modern philosophy, the term reappears in debates over mental representation and the nature of conceptual content.

In the arts, conceptualists or conceptual artists worked within the Conceptual Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, stressing that the idea or concept behind a work matters more than its formal aesthetic or material presence. Notable figures include Sol LeWitt, Joseph Kosuth, and Lawrence Weiner, whose works often rely on statements, instructions, or documentation. This strand of art challenged traditional notions of authorship, originality, and the role of the viewer, and it has influenced later practices that foreground language, systems, and process.