apperception
Americannoun
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the attainment of full awareness of a sensation or idea
-
the act or process of apperceiving
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of apperception
First recorded in 1745–55; from French or directly from New Latin (Leibnitz) apperceptiōn-, stem of apperceptiō. See ap- 1, perception
Explanation
Apperception is how your mind puts new information in context. You get a perception of a chair through your eyes, but apperception is how your mind relates it to chairs you've seen before. We have many perceptions: information we take in through our senses, like "It's cloudy today." An apperception goes one step further by considering the perception in relation to things you’ve perceived in the past. "There's Julia" is a perception, but "Julia is my friend" is an apperception, because it's based on past experience. "My stomach hurts" is a perception, but "I might throw up" is an apperception. Apperception is a sophisticated mental process that keeps developing through our lives.
Vocabulary lists containing apperception
Flowers for Algernon
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cept, capt, ceive (take, hold, seize)
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capt, cept, ceive, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It is, in the phrase of Leibniz, perception: but not apperception.
From Hegel's Philosophy of Mind by Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
It is true that we cannot conceive the universe otherwise than as infinite in time and space, because both time and space are but human modes of apperception.
From Jewish Theology by Kohler, Kaufmann
The shortest way to understand the Stoic principle is through the psychological doctrine of apperception.
From The Five Great Philosophies of Life by Hyde, William De Witt
Then shall mother and teacher sweetly lisp of the "fringe of apperception," "the stream of consciousness," "inhibition," "ideal motor action," and "the tabula raza."
From Little Aliens by Kelly, Myra
For this term indicates the relation of these representations to the original apperception, and also their necessary unity, even though the judgement itself is empirical, and therefore contingent, e. g.
From Kant's Theory of Knowledge by Prichard, Harold Arthur
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
