Greek · Neoplatonism

synaisthēsis

συναίσθησις

Heard as sin-ice-THAY-sis

Period
late antique, especially Plotinus
Semantic range
Co-perception, inner sense, the soul's awareness of its own states.
What it can mean
A sensing-with: the soul present to its own activity.
What it should not be equated with
Not the same lineage as syneidēsis. Not already the English word consciousness.
Primary or early source
Plotinus, Enneads, especially IV.4.
Scholarly source
Cudworth's reception; Leisinger; Thiel.
Relation to other terms
The sensing-with shore later translated by Cudworth as con-sense or consciousness.