Foundationalist

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    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."

Example

More examples

"So the foundationalist holds that both experiences and beliefs can justify beliefs, whereas the coherentist holds that only beliefs can justify beliefs."

Etymology

From foundational + -ist.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.