sense datum

noun

Also called sensum. Psychology. the basic unit of an experience resulting from the stimulation of a sense organ; a stimulus or an object of perception or sensation.
Epistemology. datum ( def 3 ).

sense datum

See representationalism, apriorism
philosophy a sensation detached both from any information it may convey and from its putative source in the external world, such as the bare awareness of a red visual field. Sense data are held by some philosophers to be the immediate objects of experience providing certain knowledge from which knowledge of material objects is inferred See also representationalism apriorism

First recorded in 1920–25

In looking at a given thing and approaching it, one sense-datum will become several, and each of these will again divide.

By a sensation I mean the fact consisting in the subject's awareness of the sense-datum.

And the universal yellow is the predicate in such judgments as "this is yellow," where "this" is a particular sense-datum.

And if the cat consists only of sense-data, it cannot be hungry, since no hunger but my own can be a sense-datum to me.

The easiest relations to apprehend are those which hold between the different parts of a single complex sense-datum.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

Start each day with the Word of the Day in your inbox!

By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies.

Browse