apperception

The mind's perception of itself as the subject or actor in its own states, unifying past and present experiences; self-consciousness, perception that reflects upon itself.

Noun

  1. The mind's perception of itself as the subject or actor in its own states, unifying past and present experiences; self-consciousness, perception that reflects upon itself.
  2. Psychological or mental perception; recognition.
    • Conception is... the simplest act of thinking; it is the apprehension of the universal, as perception is the apperception of the particular. - 1887, John Dewey, Psychology:
    • For as she smiled I was gifted a glimpse past the apperception of an anonymous spherical quantity of human flesh; and into the individual. - 2009, Adam Roberts, Yellow Blue Tibia:
  3. The general process or a particular act of mental assimilation of new experience into the totality of one's past experience.

Origin

Borrowed from French aperception (New Latin apperceptiō, used by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716)).

Forms

apperceptions

Related

apperceive apperceptive