APPERCEPTION (Apperzeption).
Apperception is the “perception” that accompanies direct perception (Perzeption). There are two aspects to apperception. The first is the act’s interpretive apprehension of the presenting or representing contents really inhering in the act. The second refers to the fact—at least within Husserl’s developed theory of inner time-consciousness after about 1907–1909—that within the momentary phase of a perception (Wahrnehmung), only primal impression animates hyletic data, that is, only primal impression directly grasps the genuinely appearing side or aspect of the object. However, the perceiver is also perceptually aware of the just seen and still to be perceived sides or aspects of the object as well as other objects spatially or thematically related to the perceived object. The awareness of the not directly perceived sides and of thematically related objects forms the horizon of what is directly perceived. This awareness is made possible by the two other moments of the momentary phase, namely, retention and protention. The second aspect of apperception, then, is the perceptual awareness, the “perceiving,” of the not directly perceived sides or aspects of the object as well as the spatial and thematic background of what is perceived.
“Apperception” is also used in a wider sense beyond the analysis of perceptual experiences to designate those moments of an experience that grasp other aspects of the same object as well as related objects in the horizon of the experienced object.
“Apperception” can also refer to what is apperceived. Whereas the directly perceived side or aspect (a “perception” in the sense of a percept) is perceived, the not directly perceived sides or aspects—the just perceived and yet to be perceived sides and aspects (the “apperception” in the sense of an “appercept”)—are apperceived. See also APPRESENTATION; INTUITION; PRESENTATION (Gegenwärtigung); RE-PRESENTATION (Vergegenwärtigung).
