nousperson

A nousperson is a neologism used in philosophy and speculative discourse to describe a person whose cognitive and ethical orientation centers on the concept of nous—the mind or intellect—as the governing faculty of judgment. The term combines Greek nous with person and, as a coined term, lacks formal status in standard philosophical vocabularies.

The coinage appears in 21st-century online philosophy discussions and in some speculative fiction, where it is used to discuss ideal rational agents, rational governance, or sophisticated cognitive avatars. It is not tied to a single school and has no fixed definition beyond intended core traits.

Core characteristics commonly associated with a nousperson include strong metacognition and commitment to evidence-based reasoning; a tendency to integrate diverse sources into a coherent framework; and a preference for universal principles over contingent emotions in decision making. Some proponents describe a nousperson as striving toward reflective equilibrium, while critics caution that the term risks vagueness and normative bias.

The concept is used to frame discussions about rational agents in AI ethics, epistemology, and moral psychology, and appears in debates about how humans might approximate "ideal reason" or how social systems could be guided by rational deliberation. See also rational agent, rationality, philosophy of mind.