Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Perception
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.
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.
Matter hath no life nor
perception
, and is not conscious of its own existence. Bentley.
3.
The quality, state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation; sensibility.
[Obs.]
This experiment discovereth
perception
in plants. Bacon.
4.
An idea; a notion.
[Obs.]
Sir M. Hale.
☞ “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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Perception
PERCEP'TION
,Noun.
1.
The act of perceiving or of receiving impressions by the senses; or that act or process of the mind which makes known an external object. In other words, the notice which the mind takes of external objects. We gain a knowledge of the coldness and smoothness of marble by perception.2.
In philosophy, 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.3.
Notion; idea.4.
The state of being affected or capable of being affected by something external. This experiment discovers perception in plants.