foundationalism.

The view that some beliefs support others without themselves needing support from further beliefs.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• epistemic foundationalism
• modest foundationalism
• defend foundationalism

On the page

Her defense of foundationalism treats perceptual experience as support for certain basic beliefs.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: SEP epistemology and coherentism discussion distinguish basic justification from support by further beliefs; some versions allow fallible experiential support, so no universal certainty requirement. Writing functions: analysis, conceptual distinction.