Anschauung
Anschauung
A German term used in epistemology to mean intuition or perception with a quality of directness or immediacy. It is a basic term in Kant’s philosophy, denoting that which presents materials to the intellect through the forms of space and time. These forms predetermine what types of objects (schemata) can be set up when the understanding applies its own forms to the facts of sense. Kant distinguished “empirical” intuitions (a posteriori) of objects through sensation, and “pure” intuitions (a priori) with space and time as the forms of sensibility. The characteristics and functions of Anschauung are discussed in the first division (Aesthetic) of the Critique of Pure Reason. Caird disputes the equivalence of the Kantian Anschauung with intuition; but it is difficult to find an English word more closely related to the German term. — T.G.