Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Subjective?

\Sub*jec"tive\, a. [L. subjectivus: cf. F. subjectif.] 1. Of or pertaining to a subject. 2. Especially, pertaining to, or derived from, one's own consciousness, in distinction from external observation; ralating to the mind, or intellectual world, in distinction from the outward or material excessively occupied with, or brooding over, one's own internal states. Note: In the philosophy of the mind, subjective denotes what is to be referred to the thinking subject, the ego; objective, what belongs to the object of thought, the non-ego. See {Objective}, a., 2. --Sir W. Hamilton. 3. (Lit. & Art) Modified by, or making prominent, the individuality of a writer or an artist; as, a subjective drama or painting; a subjective writer. Syn: See {Objective}. {Subjective sensation} (Physiol.), one of the sensations occurring when stimuli due to internal causes excite the nervous apparatus of the sense organs, as when a person imagines he sees figures which have no objective reality. -- {Sub*jec"tive*ly}, adv. -- {Sub*jec"tive*ness}, n.