2

I am looking for a psychological term or phrase for experiencing the world via the senses. (I am particularly interested in visual, auditory and thermal stimuli.) I am not looking for the word "sensory" or similar, as that is too physiological.

Brad L
  • 21
  • World perception trough all your faculties. Faculties: the inherent powers of the mind or body, such as reason, memory, sight, or hearing. –  Oct 16 '14 at 20:01
  • "Sensory experience" is probably the best phrase I know of in English to describe this concisely. You might also look into the word "afferent", which describes pulses that move up through nerves to the central brain; maybe "afferent experiences." That is even more physiological though. – Nick2253 Oct 16 '14 at 20:02
  • I am wondering if 'attuned' would help describe it - "to be attuned to one's surroundings". Possibly not sense-specific enough. A 'heightened awareness' also springs to mind – Alo Oct 16 '14 at 20:22

2 Answers2

1

Phenomenalism conveys the idea.

a theory that all knowledge is of phenomena and that what is construed to be perception of material objects is simply perception of sense-data

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phenomenalism

the view that all things, including human beings, consist simply of the aggregate of their observable, sensory qualities.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/phenomenalism

It is a philosophical term but it is also used in psychology, and there is even a definition in psychology dictionary. There is an article called "A Defence Of Phenomenalism In Psychology" (written by an idealist philosopher called FH Bradley) which defends psychology by endeavoring to fix its true sense and it says that it is a rational attitude in psychology but it is senseless in metaphysics. The term is also called sensationalism but sensationalism has also another meaning which is more common.

You can use the adjective phenomenal to define this kind of world also.

known through the senses rather than through thought or intuition

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phenomenal

Perceptible by the senses or through immediate experience: the phenomenal world

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/phenomenal

ermanen
  • 62,797
0

Empirical has the sense of having observed something, especially in a setting that was not set up as an experiment.

*Experiential" can be contrasted with information personally received, rather than through reading about it or hearing a lecture about it.

I am hard-pressed to think of a way one might experience something other than through the senses. The stimuli forming the experience has be received through touch, hearing, seeing, smelling, or tasting.

Theresa
  • 2,551