sensibilitets

Sensibilitets is a cross-disciplinary term describing the capacity to perceive and respond to stimuli, as well as the responsiveness to feelings, moral concerns, or aesthetic impressions. It derives from Latin sensibilitas and is related to sensitivity and sensation. In Swedish and other European languages, forms such as sensibilitet and sensibilitets appear in academic and literary contexts.

In biology and physiology, sensitibility denotes the ability of organisms to detect environmental changes through sensory receptors, transduction, and neural processing. It includes modalities such as vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, as well as specialized systems like proprioception and nociception. Thresholds, adaptation, and stimulus intensity influence perceptual accuracy.

In psychology and cognitive science, sensitivity refers to perceptual threshold and signal detection, as well as individual differences in attention and sensory integration. The term sensibility also describes emotional or moral responsiveness—the capacity to be affected by others' feelings and to form empathic judgments.

In aesthetics and literature, sensibility denotes a cultivated capacity for refined feeling and sympathetic understanding. In 18th-century European thought, sensibility shaped debates about morality, art, and social conduct, with figures such as Rousseau and the novelists of the period emphasizing empathy and sensibility as virtues, though sometimes criticized for excess.

Today, sensitivity is common in scientific use, while sensibility retains historical or literary nuances. The concept intersects with perception, awareness, vulnerability, and responsiveness across humans, animals, and machines, depending on context.