Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesThe school of thought that for a theory to be properly explained it is necessary that all concepts used by the theory be well-defined.
Some philosophers have not given up on definitionism.
2006, Jack S. Crumley II, A Brief Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind, Rowman & Littlefield, page 1522 more examples
1992, William R. LaFleur, Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan, Princeton University Press, page 15, Quoted in 2015, Adam C. Pelser, Robert C. Roberts, 18: Religious value and moral psychology, Tobias Brosch, David Sander (editors), Handbook of Value, Oxford University Press, page 388, Instead of logic chopping and the unconnected neat boxes produced by definitionism, ritual provides activities that fuse a wide variety of things that seem otherwise unrelated.
Perhaps definitionism does not work for all complex concepts.
2007, Karen Neander, “Biological Approaches to Mental Representation”, in Mohan Matthan, Christopher Stephens, editors, Philosophy of Biology, North-Holland: Elsevier, page 561Synonyms: classical theory of concepts
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe school of thought that for a theory to be properly explained it is necessary that all concepts used by the theory be well-defined.
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
definitionism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/definitionism
“definitionism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/definitionism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “definitionism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/definitionism.
Source: definitionism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.