Apperception

In Epistemology , it is "the introspective or reflective apprehension by the mind of its own inner states" ( Ledger Wood in ''Runes'').

In Psychology , it is "the process by which new experience is assimilated to and transformed by the residuum of past experience of an individual to form a new whole" (Ledger Wood in ''Runes''). In short, it is to perceive new experience in relation to past experience.

Example 1: We see a fire (visual perception). By ''apperception'' we correlate the appearance of fire with past experiences of being burned. Having combined present and past experience we realize this is a situation in which we should avoid placing our hand in the fire and being burned.From a discussion of apperception by William James, "Talks to Teachers," Chapter 14

Example 2: A rich child and a poor child walking together come across the same $10.00 bill on the sidewalk. The rich child says it is not very much money and the poor child says it is a lot of money. The difference lies in how they apperceive the same event -- the lens of past experience through which they see and value (or devalue) the money.From "The Evolution of Perception and the Cosmology of Substance" by Christopher Ott, 2004.

In Philosophy , Kant distiguished ''empirical apperception'' from ''transcendental apperception''. The first is "the consciousness of the concrete actual self with its changing states", the so-called "inner sense". The second is "the pure, original, unchangeable consciousness which is the necessary condition of experience as such and the ultimate foundation of the synthetic unity of experience" ( Otto F. Kraushaar in ''Runes''). See '' Kantianism ''.

The eastern concept of the Sanskara or Samskara can also be looked upon as a form of apperception -- seeing events through the 'lens' of accumulated Impressions .

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Apperception