The Etymology of Perception

Introduction

When I think of perception, I get the idea not only of seeing something, but seeing it from a specific point of view, i.e. my point of view, wrapped up with all of my other current thoughts, emotions, and distractions. It is more than simply viewing something with the eyes. I am also creating a virtual object in my mind. I am witnessing via the physical, mapping via the mental, and in this way, I'm having an experience of that thing I've perceived. Here, we'll dive deeper into the concept of perception, focusing on its etymology and placement in a metaphysics that allows for subjectivity.

Etymology

Etymonline.com traces the word perceive back to sometime around 1300 (Before 1398, via John Trevisa, according to the OED). It comes into English from Anglo-French parceif, which in turn came from Latin percipere "to obtain, gather, seize, take possession of." The prefix, per- serves here as an intensifier. We're not just "grasping" or ""taking" something. We're "thoroughly grasping." But we can go back even further. The word in Latin came from the Proto-Indo-European root *kap- "to grasp." And since Latin and English both come from the same source (Proto-Indo-European), it might be fun to see if this *kap- root made its way into our own language, which it did. This ancient root, was shifted in its pronunciation before coming to English (via regular sound changes). The *k became an h sound (Grimm's Law). And the *p became a v (Verner's Law with some other changes afterwards). Muscle through some messy vowel variation and the Great Vowel Shift, and you get the English word: heave "to lift." From this we see an intimate relationship between our word, heave, and our beloved Latin adoption, perceive. Now, this may seem like a meaningless tangent, but we really are constructing a deeper, more complex version of our original conception of perception. Our vague, fuzzy notion is beginning to take on shape and to reveal internal, historical structure.

Meaning

A basic dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster gives us (1) awareness through physical sensation: reaction to sensory simulus. (2) understanding or interpretation of physical sensation. (3) the state of being aware: consciousness. Wiktionary adds (1) the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information, and (2) conscious understanding of something.

Keeping our etymology in mind, we come to a meaning where the objects of the senses are taken in thoroughly or absorbed even, and done so in a way that creates understanding and awareness of what it is that's being taken in. There isn't just contact. Coherent mental structure (a symbol) is also generated by that contact, and there is awareness of that structure.

Philosophy

In Symbolism: its meaning and effect, Alfred North Whitehead defines perception as an internal relationship between the perceiving subject and the object of perception. He calls this perceiving subject the percipient ("the perceiving one") and argues that the act of perception represents "the primary phase in the self-production of an occasion of actual existence." The precipient is a point of activity. That activity is the act of perception. And perception is nothing more than the precipient itself.