…Umwelt (OOM-velt) is
a German word that literally means…‘the world around’. [It] signifies the
perceived world, the world sensed by an animal, a view idiosyncratic to each
species, fueled by its particular sensory and cognitive powers and limited by
its deficits. But not only dogs and bees have umwelts, all animals do, even
humans. We might call it reality, but it is indeed an umwelt, an idiosyncratic
sensory picture of the living world around us.
– Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Naming Nature: The Clash Between Nature and Science
– Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Naming Nature: The Clash Between Nature and Science