[From Latin conceptum: something conceived, an idea.]
(epistemology) The view that conceptual knowledge consists of non-arbitrary abstractions from perceptual knowledge, but that concepts do not have an independent existence. Conceptualism thus opposes both nominalism and realism. The main conceptualist in philosophical history is Peter Abailard (1079-1142). However, it can be argued that various forms of Aristotelianism are also conceptualist, although that is a topic of disagreement among scholars of Aristotle.