1679 – Leibniz introduces apperception

1679 – Leibniz introduces apperception

1679 – Leibniz introduces apperception 266 190 Looking out Loud

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) introduced the concept of apperception, which refers to an act that is necessary for an individual to become conscious of a perceptual event. He noted that without apperception, information does not enter conscious awareness. Leibniz said, “Attention is a determination of the soul to know something in preference to other things”.

“Nihil est in intellectu quod non fuerit in sensu, nisi intellectu ipse.”

– “Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the senses, except the intellect itself.”