Empfindung

Empfindung is a German noun meaning sensation, feeling, or perception. It denotes a subjective experience arising from sensory input, including basic data such as warmth, color, or sound, as well as immediate affective impressions. In everyday language it is often used to describe how something feels, and can overlap with both Wahrnehmung (perception) and Gefüh l (emotion), though it generally refers to the raw, felt aspect of experience.

The term comes from the verb empfinden, meaning to perceive or feel. In ordinary German usage, Empfindung can refer to bodily sensations as well as more general sensory impressions, without necessarily implying a cognitive judgment about what is being experienced.

In psychology and neuroscience, Empfindung is used to denote the subjective, felt data produced by sensory receptors. It is often distinguished from Wahrnehmung, which includes interpretation, identification, and the formation of meaning. Some theories treat Empfindung as the raw input that the brain later processes into coherent perception and knowledge.

In philosophy, particularly in German thought, Empfindung has been discussed as the sensorial content available to the mind. In Kantian philosophy, Sinnlichkeit (sensibility) provides Empfindungen, which the understanding then organizes to form experience. Later, phenomenologists and other German philosophers examined Empfindung as a fundamental aspect of conscious life, emphasizing its role in embodiment and subjective experience.