Olga asked:

I have difficulty with translating my paper to English. If you could tell me what exactly "sensibility"
means in philosophy if such a term exists at all. Is it the same as sensuality, does it relate to the
theory of affect, and sexuality? This word in Russian is very ambiguous: we use it for Kant's two
forms of sensibility (space and time) as well as for general describing of what could be called "love
discourse" in relation to human emotions, as well as referring to Nietzsche Genealogy of Morals
(people of "straight sensibility" (I am not sure I get it right) vs. people of ressentiment,so it could be
understood as reactivity, affective response in intersubjective relations. Could you tell me the
equivalent in English, is "sensibility" the right word? I hope I made myself clear.

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The word "sensibility" is defined by the Merriam English Dictionarywith the following meanings:

1: ability to receive sensations: tactile sensibility

2: peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight) — often
used in plural

3: awareness of and responsiveness toward something (as emotion in another)

4: refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and taste with especial responsiveness to the
pathetic

Perhaps meaning 1 is the nearest to the meaning in Kant. And meaning 3 is perhaps the nearest to
the one you describe second. "Sensibility" is certainly a word in English and the title of a famous
English novel by the 18th century writer Jane Austen is Sense and Sensibilityin which the term is
used in meaning number 4 above.

Ken Stern