☼ Concept Map

''apperception'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20261010165954-00-⌔

apperception - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

apperception (countable and uncountable, plural apperceptions)

  • (uncountable, psychology and philosophy, especially Kantianism) 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.
  • (uncountable) 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.1
    • ✤ For as she smiled I was gifted a glimpse past the apperception of an anonymous spherical quantity of human flesh; and into the individual.2
  • (countable, psychology) The general process or a particular act of mental assimilation of new experience into the totality of one’s past experience.

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˌæpəˈsɛpʃən/
  • (General American) IPA: /ˌæpɚˈsɛpʃən/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-10-10.

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Footnotes

  1. 1887, John Dewey, Psychology: ↩

  2. 2009, Adam Roberts, Yellow Blue Tibia: ↩