Metaph. [ad. F. aperception (mod.L. apperceptiōn-em, Leibnitz), f. apercevoir: see APPERCEIVE and -TION.]
1. The mind’s perception of itself as a conscious agent; self-consciousness.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Adperception, in the Leibnitzian style, denotes the act whereby the mind becomes conscious to itself of a perception.
1763. Reid, Inquiry, II. xv. (1785), 220. By apperception he understands that degree of perception, which reflects, as it were, upon itself: by which we are conscious of our own existence, and conscious of our own perceptions.
1877. Caird, Philos. Kant, V. 79. The monad that has consciousness of itself … that has not only perception, but apperception.
2. Mental perception, recognition.
1839. Bailey, Festus, xix. (1848), 217. Meet apperception of the sum of things.
1857. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos., IV. viii. § 65. The recognition or apperception of these truths by men.
