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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Introspection

Introspection \In`tro*spec"tion\, n. [Cf. F. introspection.] A view of the inside or interior; a looking inward; specifically, the act or process of self-examination, or inspection of one's own thoughts and feelings; the cognition which the mind has of its own acts and states; self-consciousness; reflection.

I was forced to make an introspection into my own mind.
--Dryden.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
introspection

1670s, noun of action from past participle stem of Latin introspicere "to look into, look at," from intro- "inward" (see intro-) + specere "to look at" (see scope (n.1)).

Wiktionary
introspection

n. 1 (context programming object-oriented English) (short form of type introspection English) 2 (context psychology English) A looking inward; specifically, the act or process of self-examination, or inspection of one's own thoughts and feelings; the cognition which the mind has of its own acts and states; self-consciousness; reflection.

WordNet
introspection

n. the contemplation of your own thoughts and desires and conduct [syn: self-contemplation, self-examination]

Wikipedia
Introspection

Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology the process of introspection relies exclusively on observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's soul. Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and is contrasted with external observation.

Introspection generally provides a privileged access to our own mental states, not mediated by other sources of knowledge, so that individual experience of the mind is unique. Introspection can determine any number of mental states including: sensory, bodily, cognitive, emotional and so forth.

Introspection has been a subject of philosophical discussion for thousands of years. The philosopher Plato asked, "…why should we not calmly and patiently review our own thoughts, and thoroughly examine and see what these appearances in us really are?" While introspection is applicable to many facets of philosophical thought it is perhaps best known for its role in epistemology, in this context introspection is often compared with perception, reason, memory, and testimony as a source of knowledge.

Introspection (Myriads album)

Introspection is the second full-length album by the band Myriads.

Introspection (Greg Howe album)

Introspection is the second studio album by guitarist Greg Howe, released in 1993 through Shrapnel Records.

Introspection (Thijs van Leer album)

Introspection is the debut solo album by progressive rock musician Thijs van Leer, released in 1973.

Introspection (disambiguation)

Introspection is the self-observation of one's mental processes.

Introspection may also refer to:

  • Introspection (Greg Howe album), 1993
  • Introspection (Myriads album)
  • Introspection (Thijs van Leer album), or the title song
  • Introspection, an album by the UK band The End
  • Introspection, an album by Ivo Perelman
  • Introspection (EP), a 2013 EP by Keep of Kalessin
  • "Introspection", a song by MC Solaar from Mach 6
  • "Introspection", a song by MGMT from their eponymous album, which is a cover of a song by Faine Jade
  • Type introspection, a capability of some object-oriented programming languages
Introspection (EP)

Introspection is the second extended play by the Norwegian extreme metal band Keep of Kalessin, released on 9 April 2013 in Norway. The EP contains two new songs, as well as a re-done "extreme version" of their song "The Dragontower".

Usage examples of "introspection".

Indeed, after behaviorism, mainstream theoretical psychology and philosophy have had little to say about the nature of introspection.

Thus, insofar as behaviorist and neuroscientific models rely on firsthand accounts of experience, they continue to depend on introspection.

Moreover, with the perceived failure of introspection as a means of scientific inquiry, many behaviorists simply reduced all mental activity, including consciousness itself, to objective behavior.

From the margins of the story, she exposes the shortcomings of male textualization and even forces Havel to a higher level of introspection.

While untrained introspection is like unrefined gold ore, neuroscientific understanding of the origins, nature, and causal efficacy of consciousness is like an undated check.

Most of our fiction, in its extreme analysis, introspection and selfconsciousness, in its devotion to details, in its disregard of the ideal, in its selection as well as in its treatment of nature, is simply of a piece with a good deal else that passes for genuine art. Much of it is admirable in workmanship, and exhibits a cleverness in details and a subtlety in the observation of traits which many great novels lack.

In presenting his argument against the very existence of introspection, Lyons correctly asserts that we commonly have an unfounded certainty about the reliability of our internal observations.

As noted earlier, when introspection was engineered so as to conform as closely as possible to extraspective, scientific observation, it could no longer be used to inquire into any but the most primitive of human cognitions, while the higher functions of thought and feeling were ignored.

Moreover, the notion that introspection entails a split in the attention is not the only possible interpretation.

The state of passive hyperawareness made for a bad case of introspection.

Critics of the scientific use of introspection have raised the legitimate problem that when the introspecting subject is compelled to reply to the questions of the experimenter, this not only biases the observations and responses but also carries the implicit message to the subject that all the questions are answerable.

Their objective solution to the fallibility of introspection was to apply external, artificial constraints on their introspecting subjects, thereby reducing the sophisticated, human ability of introspection to a primitive, robotlike process of internal monitoring.

Scientific materialists commonly regard introspection as being inadequate to the task of providing reliable data that can generate anything approximating scientific consensus.

But while this dualistic construct of phenomena versus noumena has done little to hamper the physical sciences, it has contributed to the stifling of introspection as a means to exploring the mind.

Like the previous objections, this problem is not confined to introspection.