Perception

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Perception \Per*cep"tion\ (p[~e]r*s[e^]p"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
     perceptio: cf. F. perception. See {Perceive}.]
     1. The act of perceiving; cognizance by the senses or
        intellect; apprehension by the bodily organs, or by the
        mind, of what is presented to them; discernment;
        apprehension; cognition.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Metaph.) The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or
        peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he has
        knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the
        bodily organs; the act of apperhending material objects or
        qualities through the senses; -- distinguished from
        {conception}. --Sir W. Hamilton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Matter hath no life nor perception, and is not
              conscious of its own existence.       --Bentley.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. The quality, state, or capability, of being affected by
        something external; sensation; sensibility. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              This experiment discovereth perception in plants.
                                                    --Bacon.
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     4. An idea; a notion. [Obs.] --Sir M. Hale.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: "The word perception is, in the language of
           philosophers previous to Reid, used in a very extensive
           signification. By Descartes, Malebranche, Locke,
           Leibnitz, and others, it is employed in a sense almost
           as unexclusive as consciousness, in its widest
           signification. By Reid this word was limited to our
           faculty acquisitive of knowledge, and to that branch of
           this faculty whereby, through the senses, we obtain a
           knowledge of the external world. But his limitation did
           not stop here. In the act of external perception he
           distinguished two elements, to which he gave the names
           of perception and sensation. He ought perhaps to have
           called these perception proper and sensation proper,
           when employed in his special meaning." --Sir W.
           Hamilton.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  perception
       n 1: the representation of what is perceived; basic component in
            the formation of a concept [syn: {percept}, {perceptual
            experience}]
       2: a way of conceiving something; "Luther had a new perception
          of the Bible"
       3: the process of perceiving
       4: knowledge gained by perceiving; "a man admired for the depth
          of his perception"
       5: becoming aware of something via the senses [syn: {sensing}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  121 Moby Thesaurus words for "perception":
     acuity, acumen, acuteness, apperception, appreciation,
     appreciativeness, apprehension, astuteness, awareness, clear sight,
     cogency, cognition, cognizance, color vision, comprehension,
     conceit, concept, conception, cone vision, consciousness,
     critical discernment, day vision, daylight vision, discernment,
     experience, eye, eye-mindedness, eyesight, fancy, farseeingness,
     farsight, farsightedness, feel, feeling, field of view,
     field of vision, flair, foresight, foresightedness, grasp, horizon,
     idea, image, imago, impression, incisiveness, insight, instinct,
     intellection, intellectual object, intuition, judgment, keen sight,
     ken, knowledge, longheadedness, longsightedness, memory-trace,
     mental image, mental impression, mindfulness, night vision, noesis,
     note, notice, notion, observation, opinion, penetration, percept,
     perceptiveness, percipience, peripheral field, peripheral vision,
     perspective, perspicaciousness, perspicacity, perspicuity,
     perspicuousness, photopia, power of sight, providence, purview,
     quick sight, range, realization, recept, recognition, reflection,
     representation, response, response to stimuli, rod vision,
     sagaciousness, sagacity, scope, scotopia, seeing, sensation, sense,
     sense impression, sense of sight, sense perception, sensibility,
     sensory experience, sentiment, sight, sightedness, supposition,
     sweep, theory, thought, trenchancy, twilight vision, understanding,
     unobstructed vision, view, vision, visual acuity, visual field,
     visual sense