percept

English

WOTD – 6 May 2011

Etymology 1

A learned borrowing, after concept, from Classical Latin perceptum (“a proposition, principle, general idea”), from the neuter of perceptus (“perceived”), the past participle of percipiō (“to perceive”); see perceive. Coined by the Scottish metaphysician Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (1788–1856), in Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, published posthumously in 1860 (see the quotation).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜːsɛpt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɝsɛpt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

percept (plural percepts)

2. (philosophy, psychology, now rare) Something perceived; the object of perception. [from 19th c.]
   • [a. 1857, William Hamilton, “Lecture III. Introduction. […]”, in H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, editors, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1860, →OCLC, page 42:

     I shall, therefore, make no scruple in using the expression concept for the object of conception, and conception I shall exclusively employ to designate the act of conceiving. Whether it might not, in like manner, be proper to introduce the term percept for the object of perception, I shall not at present inquire.]

   • 1988, Benny Shanon, “Remarks on the Modularity of Mind”, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, volume 39, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Published for the British Society for the Philosophy of Science by Oxford University Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 338:

     It may even be that the percepts detected by one sense organ are experienced as having the modality standardly associated with another.

4. (philosophy, psychology, linguistics) A perceived object as it exists in the mind of someone perceiving it; the mental impression that is the result of perceiving something. [from 19th c.]
   • 1901, Charles Sanders Peirce, Grammar of Science:

     I see an inkstand on the table: that is a percept. Moving my head, I get a different percept of the inkstand.

   • 1905, William James, “How Two Minds Can Know One Thing”, in Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods:

     So far as in that world it is a stable feature, holds ink, marks paper and obeys the guidance of a hand, it is a physical pen. [...] So far as it is instable, on the contrary, coming and going with the movements of my eyes, altering with what I call my fancy, continuous with subsequent experiences of its ‘having been’ (in the past tense), it is the percept of a pen in my mind.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy:

     Socrates remarks that when he is well he finds wine sweet, but when ill, sour. Here it is a change in the percipient that causes the change in the percept.

Derived terms

• perceptron
• subpercept

Related terms

• perceive
• perception
• perceptive

Etymology 2

Learned borrowing from Classical Latin percept-, the past participial stem of percipiō (“to perceive”). In sense 2, perhaps independently from percept (“something perceived”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈsɛpt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pərˈsɛpt/

Verb

percept (third-person singular simple present percepts, present participle percepting, simple past and past participle percepted)

2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (transitive, obsolete, rare) Synonym of perceive.
   • 1652, John Gaule, Πῦς-μαντία. The Mag-Astro-Mancer, or the Magicall-Astrologicall-Diviner posed and puzzled:

     And is not the highest speculation of it percepted and perfected by manuall instruments, and those fallacious too, as themselves complain?

4. (transitive) To make perceptible or distinct, to reveal. [from 20th c.]
   • 1947, László Moholy-Nagy, translated by Daphne M. Hoffman, “The material (surface treatment, painting)”, in The New Vision and Abstract of an Artist (The Documents of Modern Art), New York, N.Y.; Scarsdale, N.Y.: George Wittenborn, →OCLC, “The New Vision” (4th revised edition) section, page 34:

     The lighter and darker shading of surfaces can be understood as a means for discrimination in percepting each viewpoint, and at the same time as spatial articulation — back, forward, oblique — of the pictorial space of the picture-plane.

   • 1950, Richard Eberhart, “A Legend of Viable Women”, in John Ciardi, editor, Mid-Century American Poets, New York, N.Y.: Twayne Publishers, published January 1952 (2nd printing), →OCLC, canto II, page 231:

     There was a nun of modesty, who with service was heavy / And big with sweet acts all her sweet life long; / Enough wisdom she had for twenty ordinary women / Who percepted love as a breath, and as a song.

   • 2001 December 1, Jonathan Rigelsford, “Biomimetic Sensor Technology”, in Sensor Review: The International Journal of Sensing for Industry, volume 21, number 4, Bingley, West Yorkshire: Emerald Publishing, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 323:

     Chemo‐reception, biological membranes, and a discussion of how the reception of taste and odour substances are percepted in the brain, are addressed in Chapter 2.

Further reading

• “percept”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “percept”, in The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• precept