Presentationism

Presentationism (from Latin prae-esse, praesens, present) is a philosophical term used in various senses deriving from the general sense of the term presentation.

According to G. F. Stout (cf. Manual of Psychology, i. 57), presentations are whatever constituents or our total experience at any moment directly determine the nature of the object as it is perceived or thought of at that moment. In Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, vol. ii., a presentation is an object in the special form under which it is cognized at any given moment of perceptual or ideational process. This, the widest definition of the term, due largely to Professor James Ward, thus includes both perceptual and ideational processes. The term has, indeed, been narrowed so as to include ideation, the correlative representation being utilized for ideal presentation, but in general the wider use is preferred.