Abstract
Kansei is greatly affected by culture, customs, life-style and the other social factors. Therefore sociological studies are indispensable in order to explain functions of Kansei. In this paper we clarify four meanings of Kansei by analyzing the perceptive process of human beings and define Kansei which sociology deals with as the psychological ability to judge or evaluate intuitively sensory information or representation. And based on this, we clarify how the sociological approach to Kansei is possible by showing several methods for it (“sociology of sense”by Goerg Simmel, approach from artifacts, social studies of science and technology and studies of social meanings of concepts).
