Aistinvaraisten

Aistinvaraisten is the genitive plural form of the Finnish adjective aistinvarainen, meaning sensory or perceptual. It is commonly used in academic Finnish to describe data, observations, or phenomena that are accessible through the senses or that arise from sensory perception. The term is typically part of noun phrases such as aistinvaraisten havaintojen, aistinvaraisten tietojen or aistinvaraisten ilmiöiden, which refer to perceptual observations, sensory information, or phenomena.

In philosophy and cognitive science, aistinvaraiset tiedot are treated as empirical evidence gathered from perception, as opposed to a priori or purely rational knowledge. The use of the genitive form aistinvaraisten allows the description to function as an attributive modifier within a sentence, e.g., "aistinvaraisten havaintojen luotettavuus" (the reliability of perceptual observations). Common related terms include aisti (sense), aistinvarainen tieto (sensory knowledge), and empiria (empiricism).

The concept is not a technical term with a single fixed definition, but a regular linguistic construction to discuss perceptual content in Finnish texts. It appears across philosophy of mind, epistemology, psychology, and sensory science to distinguish perceptual from non-perceptual or theoretical knowledge.