Sen*sa"tion (?), n. [Cf.
F. sensation. See Sensate.]
1. (Physiol.) An impression, or the consciousness of an impression, made upon the central nervous organ, through the medium of
a sensory or afferent nerve or one
of the organs of sense; a feeling, or state of consciousness, whether
agreeable or disagreeable, produced either by an
external object (stimulus), or by some change in the
internal state of the body.
Perception is only a special kind of knowledge, and sensation a special kind of feeling. . . . Knowledge
and feeling, perception and sensation, though always coexistent, are always in
the inverse ratio of each
other.
Sir W. Hamilton. 2. A purely spiritual or psychical affection; agreeable or disagreeable feelings
occasioned by objects that are not corporeal or material.
3. A state of
excited interest or feeling, or that which causes it.
The
sensation caused by
the appearance of that work
is still remembered by many.
Brougham. Syn. -- Perception. --
Sensation, Perseption. The distinction between these words, when used in mental philosophy, may be thus stated; if I simply smell a rose, I have a sensation; if I refer that
smell to the external object which occasioned it, I have a perception. Thus, the former is mere feeling, without the idea of an object; the latter is the
mind's apprehension of some external object as occasioning that feeling. "Sensation properly
expresses that change in the state
of the mind which is produced by an
impression upon an organ of sense (of which change we can conceive the mind to be conscious, without any knowledge of external objects). Perception, on the other hand, expresses the knowledge or the intimations we obtain by means of our sensations concerning the qualities of matter, and consequently involves,
in every instance, the notion of externality, or outness, which it is necessary to exclude in order to seize the precise import of the word
sensation." Fleming.
Hear it pronounced