noun (n)

• the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience(noun.cognition)

  Synonym:
  center, centre, core, essence, gist, heart, heart and soul, kernel, marrow, meat, nitty-gritty, nub, pith, substance, sum
  

  source: wordnet30
• preoccupation especially with one's attitudes and ethical or ideological values(noun.cognition)

  Example:
  The sensitiveness of James's characters, their seeming inwardness.
  Inwardness is what an Englishman quite simply has, painlessly, as a birthright.
  

  source: wordnet30
• the quality or state of being inward or internal(noun.attribute)

  Example:
  The inwardness of the body's organs.
  

  Antonym:
  externality, outwardness
  

  source: wordnet30
• preoccupation with what concerns human inner nature (especially ethical or ideological values)(noun.attribute)

  Example:
  Socrates' inwardness, integrity, and inquisitiveness.
  

  Synonym:
  internality
  Antonym:
  outwardness
  

  source: wordnet30
• Internal or true state; essential nature; as, the inwardness of conduct.(noun)

  source: webster1913