Noumenon: Difference between revisions

In [[philosophy]], a '''noumenon''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|uː|m|ə|n|ɒ|n}}, {{small|UK also}} {{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|aʊ|-}}; from [[Ancient Greek|Greek]]: νoούμενον; [[Plural|<small>plural</small>]] '''noumena''') is a posited object or event that exists independently of human [[sense]] and/or [[perception]].<ref>{{cite web|quote=1. intellectual conception of a thing as it is in itself, not as it is known through perception; 2. The of-itself-unknown and unknowable rational object, or thing-in-itself, which is distinguished from the phenomenon through which it is apprehended by the physical senses, and by which it is interpreted and understood;&nbsp;– so used in the philosophy of Kant and his followers.|url=http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definitions/Noumenon|archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928115535/http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definitions/Noumenon?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744:v0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID:9&ie=UTF-8&q=Noumenon&sa=Search|archivedatearchive-date=2011-09-28|url-status=dead|title=Noumenon &#124; Definition of Noumenon by Webster's Online Dictionary|accessdateaccess-date=2015-09-10}}</ref> The term ''noumenon'' is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to, the term ''[[Phenomena (philosophy)|phenomenon]]'', which refers to any [[Object (philosophy)|object]] of the senses. [[Immanuel Kant]] first developed the notion of the noumenon as part of his [[transcendental idealism]], suggesting that while we know the noumenal world to exist because human sensibility is merely receptive, it is not itself sensible and must therefore remain otherwise unknowable to us.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/noumenon|title=noumenon {{!}} philosophy|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-09-04|language=en}}</ref> In [[Kantianism|Kantian philosophy]], the unknowable noumenon is often identified with or associated with the unknowable "[[thing-in-itself]]" (in Kant's German, ''Ding an sich''). However, the nature of the relationship between the two is not made explicit in Kant's work, and remains a subject of debate among Kant scholars as a result.

Regarding the equivalent concepts in [[Plato]], Ted Honderich writes: "[[Platonic form|Platonic Ideas and Forms]] are noumena, and phenomena are things displaying themselves to the senses... This dichotomy is the most characteristic feature of Plato's dualism; that noumena and the noumenal world are objects of the highest knowledge, truths, and values is Plato's principal legacy to philosophy."<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Honderich |editor-first=Ted |editor-link=Ted Honderich |title=The Oxford Companion to Philosophy |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hond/page/657 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=31 August 1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hond/page/657 657] |isbn=0198661320 |accessdateaccess-date=2014-10-28 |url-access=registration }}</ref> However, that noumena and the noumenal world were objects of the highest knowledge, truths, and values, was disputed from the start, beginning with [[Democritus]], his follower [[Pyrrho]], founder of [[Pyrrhonism]], and even in the [[Academy]] starting with [[Arcesilaus]] and the introduction of [[Academic Skepticism]]. In these traditions of [[philosophical skepticism]], noumena are suspected of being delusions.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

* {{cite book |last=Kant|first=Immanuel|title=Critique of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant)|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521657297 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqeX8MJurLkC|ref=harv}}