Esthesis
Esthesis
(Gr. aisthesis, sensation or feeling, from aisthanesthai, to perceive) A state of pure feeling — sensuous, hedonic or affective — characterized by the absence of conceptual and interpretational elements. Aesthesis at the sensory level consists of pure sense data. See Sense datum. Though the existence of pure esthesis is challenged by most psychologists and epistemologists (see C. I. Lewis, Mind and the World Order, pp. 54-5); a state of mind approximates pure esthesis when the conceptual, interpretative and constructional elements are reduced to a minimum. — L.W.