Definition of "whatness" [whatness]

• Essence; quiddity. (noun)
• Quality; quantity. (noun)

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• "The sense of "something there" accompanies our sense perceptions, vouching for the "whatness" of things."
• "Rather than arguing that things convey their reality to percipients which would imply that we recognize as real only those things possessed of "whatness", James argues that the sense of reality is a constituent part of the percipient's experience that may in fact be independent of the object of that experience."
• "He nodded so I continued, in this ugly new voice, to ask him about the skin and bones and the whatness of this place and if I'd opened the door to hell and he said, finally, this wasn't hell."