foundationalist
foundationalist noun: a supporter of foundationalism, the doctrine that beliefs derive justification from certain basic beliefs.
Noun
foundationalist (plural foundationalists)
- A supporter of foundationalism, the doctrine that beliefs derive justification from certain basic beliefs
- So the foundationalist holds that both experiences and beliefs can justify beliefs, whereas the coherentist holds that only beliefs can justify beliefs.2007 July 12, Harold Langsam, “Rationality, Justification, and the Internalism/Externalism Debate”, in Erkenntnis, volume 68, number 1, →DOI
Adjective
foundationalist (comparative more foundationalist, superlative most foundationalist)
- Of or relating to foundationalism.
- Some philosophers have objected to certain foundationalist solutions to the regress problem on the ground that a person rarely, if ever, holds given-beliefs of the sort needed to justify observation beliefs.2012, P.K. Moser, Empirical Justification
Forms of foundationalist
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | foundationalists |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more foundationalist |
| superlative | most foundationalist |
Origin of foundationalist
From foundational + -ist.
Words formed from foundationalist
Questions about foundationalist
- What does foundationalist mean?
- Foundationalist means a supporter of foundationalism, the doctrine that beliefs derive justification from certain basic beliefs.
- What part of speech is foundationalist?
- Foundationalist can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of foundationalist?
- The plural of foundationalist is foundationalists.
Words near foundationalist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: foundationalist (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “foundationalist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foundationalist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.