Foundationalism
Etymology
From "foundation" (Latin "fundare," to lay a base, from "fundus," bottom) plus "-ism." The metaphor is structural and ancient — Descartes sought an unshakable ground for knowledge — but the label "foundationalism" is a 20th-century coinage from analytic epistemology.
noun · /fown-DAY-shun-uh-liz-um/
The view that knowledge rests on a base of self-evident or certain beliefs from which all others are derived.
What it names
One of the two great answers to how beliefs are justified — the architectural picture of knowledge as a building on bedrock.
Example
A foundationalist argues that beliefs like "I am in pain" need no further support and can bear the weight of everything else we claim to know.
Related idea
Foundationalism grounds knowledge on basic, non-inferential beliefs; coherentism rejects any such base, holding that beliefs are justified by fitting together into a mutually supporting web — one is a pyramid, the other a raft.