Apperceive, Apperception

  Apperception is perception that reflects upon itself; consciousness.–Webster’s American Dictionary, 1828
  Apperception is 1. in Wundt’s psychology, the process whereby a perception or idea attains to clearness in consciousness; also, the introspective contents of this process, that is, the clear idea itself and the changes resulting in consciousness from the induction of the attentive state. 2. That act of the mind by which it becomes conscious of its ideas as its own; perception (which see) with the added consciousness that it is “I” who perceive. Hence, by a slight modification 3. With Kant and most English writers, an act of voluntary consciousness, accompanied with self-consciousness: especially in the phrase pure apperception. 4. In the psychology of Herbart (1776–1841), the coalescence of the remainder of a new isolated idea with an older one, by a modification of one or the other. 5. Apprehension; recognition.–Century Dictionary
  To apperceive is to perceive. In psychology, to recognize; interpret (new ideas, knowledge, etc.) in terms of what is already known. Apperception is clear perception; relating of new to previous knowledge in terms of what is already known.–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 1938
  Apperception is conscious perception with full awareness. The process of understanding by which newly observed qualities of an object are related to past experience.–American Heritage Dictionary
  Apperception is the term introduced by Leibniz for the mind’s reflective apprehension of its own inner states. Kant distinguishes empirical apperception, which is consciousness of the ordinary, changing self, and transcendental apperception. This is the unchangeable consciousness that unifies experience as that of one subject, and is thereby the ultimate foundation of the very possibility of experience and thought.–Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy
  Apperception, in psychology, a term used to describe the presentation of an object on which attention is fixed, in relation to the sum of consciousness previous to the presentation and the mind as a whole. The word was first used by Leibnitz, practically in the sense of the modern Attention, by which an object is apprehended as “not-self” and yet in relation to the self. In Kantian terminology apperception is (1) transcendental—the perception of an object as involving the consciousness of the pure self as subject, and (2) empirical,—the cognition of the self in its concrete existence. In (1) apperception is almost equivalent to self-consciousness; the existence of the ego may be more or less prominent, but it is always involved. According to J. F. Herbart apperception is that process by which an aggregate or “mass” of presentations becomes systematized (apperceptions-system) by the accretion of new elements, either sense-given or product of the inner workings of the mind. He thus emphasizes in apperception the connexion with the self as resulting from the sum of antecedent experience. Hence in education the teacher should fully acquaint himself with the mental development of the pupil, in order that he may make full use of what the pupil already knows. Apperception is thus a general term for all mental processes in which a presentation is brought into connexion with an already existent and systematized mental conception, and thereby is classified, explained or, in a word, understood; e.g. a new scientific phenomenon is explained in the light of phenomena already analysed and classified. The whole intelligent life of man is, consciously or unconsciously, a process of apperception, inasmuch as every act of attention involves the appercipient process.–Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911

  Apperception combines the prefix ap- (to fix or appoint beforehand) with perception. Apperception describes the process by which the soul amalgamates a posteriori knowledge (empirical, based on the soul’s current life experience) into a priori knowledge (transcendental, based on the soul’s total prior experience). The soul gains access to its a priori knowledge via its super-conscious aspect of mind, which is soul knowing. Apperception is rooted in the principle of nonresistance, the key to how the soul synthesizes all sublimated physical senses, mental, and soul faculties into virtue. The experience of soul knowing is an overwhelming sense of absolutely knowing something is true, as when you find yourself saying I don’t know how I know this, but I know without doubt that it is true. Apperception is also the key to precognition, to perceive or know a thing before it happens. At its highest degree apperception is a facet of the Oversoul’s cosmic Christ consciousness, the I AM principle of being. The scriptures, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.–Philippians 2:5 and We have the mind of Christ.–1 Corinthians 2:16, both refer to Christ consciousness. Apperception is a law of being, a law of doing, and a virtue.–ViaChrista.org

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