Nonsensing

Nonsensing is a term used in discussions of perception and epistemology to denote aspects of reality, data, or experience that lie outside the reach of ordinary human senses. In its broad sense, nonsensing refers to anything that cannot be directly perceived through standard modalities such as vision, audition, touch, taste, or smell, whether because it exists beyond sensory thresholds or requires instrumentation or theoretical frameworks to be detected.

The term is not part of a standardized framework. It appears in occasional writings across philosophy of perception, cognitive science, and sensory studies, where it is used to contrast what can be sensed with what cannot, or with what is sensed indirectly through instruments, models, or indirect inference.

Examples include infrared radiation, subatomic particles, or distant astronomical signals, all of which are nonsensing to unaided senses but detectable with devices. In some usages, nonsensing also encompasses information that cannot be readily translated into sensory data by current technology or theoretical interpretation.

Criticism centers on the claim that all observational data are ultimately mediated by instruments or concepts; nevertheless, proponents argue that the category helps highlight perceptual limits, the role of instrumentation, and the distinction between direct experience and mediated knowledge.

See also: perception, sensation, sensory threshold, instrumentation, epistemology.