"Recept" (pronounced ) is a term used in the work of 19th-century
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...
George Romanes to refer to an idea that is formed by the repetition of
percepts (i.e., successive percepts of the same object). The idea is similar to that of concatenated impressions, as seen in the work of
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
. It is also associated with the concepts of "construct" and "influent".
In the book ''Mental Evolution of Man'', Romanes introduced recept to support his argument that Charles Darwin's theory of the origin of language is valid by presenting more evidence from philology.
In his conceptualization, recept denotes the process, which involves memory, that transpires when a human child as a "higher animal" is faced with a sensory situation it perceives as familiar.
This familiarity elicits a response based on its meaning and significance.
Romanes also stated that, recept or a receptual thought is a compound idea - one the differs from a general or abstract idea - of past similar perceptions.
It has been interpreted as an idea that one is not aware he has.
It is noted that recept is not widely embraced because Romanes book is so little read.
The term is used in
Richard Maurice Bucke's book, ''Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind''. Bucke was a 19th-century
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
.
See also
*
Concept
A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs.
Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...
*
Percept
References
External links
*
Recepti i Kuvar online (Serbian)
Perception
{{Psychology-stub