1. Plural of phenomenalist; philosophers who believe that physical objects are collections of sensory experiences or phenomena rather than independent entities.
Usage: philosophy; formal

Examples

• Phenomenalists argue that what we call a table is really just a bundle of sensations.
• Early phenomenalists struggled to explain how objects persist when no one is observing them.
• The phenomenalists in the seminar debated whether physical reality exists independently of perception.
• Some phenomenalists claim that all knowledge of the external world comes through experience.
• Critics of phenomenalists point out the difficulty of explaining the consistency of shared experiences.