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🧠 About the mind 🔮 Mind-reading tricks
mentalistic

mentalistic

8.8
Describing explanations that focus on people's minds, thoughts or intentions rather than physical causes
  • adjective
  • /ˌmɛn.təˈlɪs.tɪk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : mentalista
  • And AI researchers freely used mentalistic language to refer to the internal states of their computer systems, referring to a program's "thoughts," "intentions," and "goals."

Examples

  • It is unclear why Dewey invokes the mentalistic ideas of intent and consciousness here.

    Academic text (2017)

  • The professor emphasized mentalistic approaches in psychology to better understand human intentions and thoughts.

  • Researchers often use mentalistic language to explain how people think and behave based on their desires and beliefs.

  • Many theories in psychology adopt a mentalistic perspective, focusing on the internal processes that influence behavior.

Synonyms

psychological
vsmentalistic
543 4.5

Relates to how a person thinks and feels

focuses on internal states as causal explanations rather than broad study
mental
vsmentalistic
388 3.0

Relating to the mind and how a person thinks

uses inner states like beliefs and intentions to explain causes
ideational
vsmentalistic
  • Specialized
1 8.6

Relating to ideas or thoughts

focuses on beliefs and intentions rather than abstract ideas
psychologistic
vsmentalistic
  • Specialized
9.9

A way of explaining things by saying they come from people's thoughts or feelings

emphasizes inner states as explanations rather than physical causes

Antonyms

physicalistic
  • Specialized
9.3

Relating to the idea that everything is made of matter and follows natural laws

How Mind-Focused

mentalistic
  • Specialized
8.8
cognitive
  • Specialized
134 5.4
behaviorist
  • Specialized
6.3
mechanistic
7 7.4
physical
525 2.1

Surface Forms

mentalistic positive

Morphology

mentalistic = mental (transparent) = mental + istic

Formed by adding the productive adjective-forming suffix '-istic' to 'mental'; the meaning 'relating to mental states or processes' follows directly.

Etymology

The word mentalistic comes from mental ('mind') and the ending -istic meaning 'related to', so it points to things 'about the mind'. So a mentalistic explanation focuses on a person's 'mind', their beliefs or intentions, rather than on their physical actions.