Noumenon
In
Etymology
The Greek word νοούμενoν, nooúmenon (plural νοούμενα, nooúmena) is the neuter middle-passive present participle of νοεῖν, noeîn, 'to think, to mean', which in turn originates from the word νοῦς, noûs, an Attic contracted form of νόος, nóos, 'perception, understanding, mind'.[a][4][5] A rough equivalent in English would be "that which is thought", or "the object of an act of thought".
Historical predecessors
Regarding the equivalent concepts in
Kantian noumena
Overview
As expressed in Kant's
By Kant's account, when one employs a concept to describe or categorize noumena (the objects of inquiry, investigation or analysis of the workings of the world), one is also employing a way of describing or categorizing phenomena (the observable manifestations of those objects of inquiry, investigation or analysis). Kant posited methods by which human understanding makes sense of and thus intuits phenomena that appear to the mind: the concepts of the
According to Kant, objects of which we are cognizant via the physical senses are merely representations of unknown somethings—what Kant refers to as the transcendental object—as interpreted through the a priori or categories of the understanding. These unknown somethings are manifested within the noumenon—although we can never know how or why as our perceptions of these unknown somethings via our physical senses are bound by the limitations of the categories of the understanding and we are therefore never able to fully know the "thing-in-itself".[14]
Noumenon and the thing-in-itself
Many accounts of Kant's philosophy treat "noumenon" and "thing-in-itself" as synonymous, and there is textual evidence for this relationship.
...though we cannot know these objects as things in themselves, we must yet be in a position at least to think them as things in themselves; otherwise we should be landed in the absurd conclusion that there can be appearance without anything that appears.[20]
He is much more doubtful about noumena:
But in that case a noumenon is not for our understanding a special [kind of] object, namely, an intelligible object; the [sort of] understanding to which it might belong is itself a problem. For we cannot in the least represent to ourselves the possibility of an understanding which should know its object, not discursively through categories, but intuitively in a non-sensible intuition.[21]
A crucial difference between the noumenon and the thing-in-itself is that to call something a noumenon is to claim a kind of knowledge, whereas Kant insisted that the thing-in-itself is unknowable. Interpreters have debated whether the latter claim makes sense: it seems to imply that we know at least one thing about the thing-in-itself (i.e., that it is unknowable). But Stephen Palmquist explains that this is part of Kant's definition of the term, to the extent that anyone who claims to have found a way of making the thing-in-itself knowable must be adopting a non-Kantian position.[22]
Positive and negative noumena
Kant also makes a distinction between positive and negative noumena:[23][24]
If by 'noumenon' we mean a thing so far as it is not an object of our sensible intuition, and so abstract from our mode of intuiting it, this is a noumenon in the negative sense of the term.[25]
But if we understand by it an object of a non-sensible intuition, we thereby presuppose a special mode of intuition, namely, the intellectual, which is not that which we possess, and of which we cannot comprehend even the possibility. This would be 'noumenon' in the positive sense of the term.[25]
The positive noumena, if they existed, would be immaterial entities that can only be apprehended by a special, non-sensory faculty: "intellectual intuition" (nicht sinnliche Anschauung).[25] Kant doubts that we have such a faculty, because for him intellectual intuition would mean that thinking of an entity, and its being represented, would be the same. He argues that humans have no way to apprehend positive noumena:
Since, however, such a type of intuition, intellectual intuition, forms no part whatsoever of our faculty of knowledge, it follows that the employment of the categories can never extend further than to the objects of experience. Doubtless, indeed, there are intelligible entities corresponding to the sensible entities; there may also be intelligible entities to which our sensible faculty of intuition has no relation whatsoever; but our concepts of understanding, being mere forms of thought for our sensible intuition, could not in the least apply to them. That, therefore, which we entitle 'noumenon' must be understood as being such only in a negative sense.[26]
The noumenon as a limiting concept
Even if noumena are unknowable, they are still needed as a limiting concept,[27] Kant tells us. Without them, there would be only phenomena, and since potentially we have complete knowledge of our phenomena, we would in a sense know everything. In his own words:
Further, the concept of a noumenon is necessary, to prevent sensible intuition from being extended to things in themselves, and thus to limit the objective validity of sensible knowledge.[28]
What our understanding acquires through this concept of a noumenon, is a negative extension; that is to say, understanding is not limited through sensibility; on the contrary, it itself limits sensibility by applying the term noumena to things in themselves (things not regarded as appearances). But in so doing it at the same time sets limits to itself, recognising that it cannot know these noumena through any of the categories, and that it must therefore think them only under the title of an unknown something.[29]
Furthermore, for Kant, the existence of a noumenal world limits reason to what he perceives to be its proper bounds, making many questions of traditional metaphysics, such as the existence of God, the soul, and free will unanswerable by reason. Kant derives this from his
The dual-object and dual-aspect interpretations
Kantian scholars have long debated two contrasting interpretations of the thing-in-itself. One is the dual object view, according to which the thing-in-itself is an entity distinct from the phenomena to which it gives rise. The other is the dual aspect view, according to which the thing-in-itself and the thing-as-it-appears are two "sides" of the same thing. This view is supported by the textual fact that "Most occurrences of the phrase 'things-in-themselves' are shorthand for the phrase, 'things considered in themselves' (Dinge an sich selbst betrachtet)."[33] Although we cannot see things apart from the way we do in fact perceive them via the physical senses, we can think them apart from our mode of sensibility (physical perception); thus making the thing-in-itself a kind of noumenon or object of thought.
Criticisms of Kant's noumenon
Pre-Kantian critique
Though the term noumenon did not come into common usage until Kant, the idea that undergirds it, that matter has an absolute existence which causes it to emanate certain phenomena, had historically been subjected to criticism.
Schopenhauer's critique
The difference between abstract and intuitive cognition, which Kant entirely overlooks, was the very one that ancient philosophers indicated as φαινόμενα [phainomena] and νοούμενα [nooumena]; the opposition and incommensurability between these terms proved very productive in the philosophemes of the
scholastics, in the conflict between nominalism and realism. This latter conflict was the late development of a seed already present in the opposed tendencies of Plato and Aristotle. But Kant, who completely and irresponsibly neglected the issue for which the terms φαινομένα and νοούμενα were already in use, then took possession of the terms as if they were stray and ownerless, and used them as designations of things in themselves and their appearances.[35]
The noumenon's original meaning of "that which is thought" is not compatible with the "thing-in-itself," the latter being Kant's term for things as they exist apart from their existence as images in the mind of an observer.[citation needed] In a footnote to this passage, Schopenhauer provides the following passage from the Outlines of Pyrrhonism (Bk. I, ch. 13) of Sextus Empiricus to demonstrate the original distinction between phenomenon and noumenon according to ancient philosophers: νοούμενα φαινομένοις ἀντετίθη Ἀναξαγόρας ('Anaxagoras opposed what is thought to what appears.')
See also
- Always already
- Anatta
- Condition of possibility
- Essence–energies distinction
- Haecceity
- Hypokeimenon
- Ineffability
- Master argument by George Berkeley
- Observation
- Qualia
- Schopenhauer's criticism of the Kantian philosophy
- Transcendental idealism
- Unobservable
Notes
- ^ Ontology
References
- ^ "Formal Epistemology". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2021.
- ^ "Noumenon | Definition of Noumenon by Webster's Online Dictionary". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
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; – so used in the philosophy of Kant and his followers.
- ^ "noumenon | philosophy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- Perseus Project.
- ^ Harper, Douglas. "noumenon". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ISBN 0198661320. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
- ^ Hanna, Robert (2009). Completing the Picture of Kant's Metaphysics of Judgment. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Kant's metaphysics.
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel", section on "Critique of Pure Reason: Theme and Preliminaries", p. 308 ff.
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel", section on "Transcendental Aesthetic", p. 310 ff.
- ^ The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel", section on "Pure Concepts of the Understanding", p. 311 ff.
- ^ See, e.g., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel", section on "Critique of Pure Reason: Theme and Preliminaries", p. 308 ff.
- ^ See also, e.g., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel", section on "Pure Concepts of the Understanding", p. 311 ff.
- ^ Kant 1999, p. 27, A256/B312.
- ^ Immanuel Kant (1781) Critique of Pure Reason, for example in A254/B310, p. 362 (Guyer and Wood), "The concept of a noumenon, i.e., of a thing that is not to be thought of as an object of the senses but rather as a thing-in-itself [...]"; But note that the terms are not used interchangeably throughout. The first reference to thing-in-itself comes many pages (A30) before the first reference to noumenon (A250). For a secondary or tertiary source, see: "Noumenon" in the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ "Noumenon: the name given to a thing when it is viewed as a transcendent object. The term 'negative noumenon' refers only to the recognition of something which is not an object of sensible intuition, while 'positive noumenon' refers to the (quite mistaken) attempt to know such a thing as an empirical object. These two terms are sometimes used loosely as synonyms for 'transcendental object' and 'thing-in-itself', respectively. (Cf. phenomenon.)" – Glossary of Kant's Technical Terms
- ^ Thing-in-itself: an object considered transcendentally apart from all the conditions under which a subject can gain knowledge of it via the physical senses. Hence the thing-in-itself is, by definition, unknowable via the physical senses. Sometimes used loosely as a synonym of noumenon. (Cf. appearance.)" – Glossary of Kant's Technical Terms. Palmquist defends his definitions of these terms in his article, "Six Perspectives on the Object in Kant's Theory of Knowledge", Dialectica 40:2 (1986), pp.121–151; revised and reprinted as Chapter VI in Palmquist's book, Kant's System of Perspectives (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993).
- ^ Oizerman, T. I., "Kant's Doctrine of the "Things in Themselves" and Noumena", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 41, No. 3, Mar., 1981, 333–350; Karin de Boer, "Kant's Multi-Layered Conception of Things in Themselves, Transcendental Objects, and Monads", Kant-Studien 105/2, 2014, 221-260.
- ^ "Other interpreters have introduced an almost unending stream of varying suggestions as to how these terms ought to be used. A handful of examples will be sufficient to make this point clear, without any claim to represent an exhaustive overview. Perhaps the most commonly accepted view is expressed by Paulsen, who equates 'thing-in-itself' and 'noumenon', equates 'appearance' and 'phenomenon', distinguishes 'positive noumenon' and 'negative noumenon', and treats 'negative noumenon' as equivalent to 'transcendental object' [pp. 4:148-50, 154-5, 192]. Al-Azm and Wolff also seem satisfied to equate 'phenomenon' and 'appearance', though they both carefully distinguish 'thing-in-itself' from 'negative noumenon' and 'positive noumenon' [A4:520; W21:165, 313–5; s.a. W9:162]. Gotterbarn similarly equates the former pair, as well as 'thing-in-itself' and 'positive noumenon', but distinguishes between 'transcendental object', 'negative noumenon' and 'thing-in-itself' [G11: 201]. By contrast, Bird and George both distinguish between 'appearance' and 'phenomenon', but not between 'thing-in-itself' and 'noumenon' [B20:18,19, 53–7; G7:513-4n]; and Bird sometimes blurs the distinction between 'thing-in-itself' and 'transcendental object' as well.[2] Gram equates 'thing-in-itself' not with 'noumenon', but with 'phenomenon' [G13:1,5-6]! Allison cites different official meanings for each term, yet he tends to equate 'thing-in-itself' at times with 'negative noumenon' and at times with 'transcendental-object', usually ignoring the role of the 'positive noumenon' [A7:94; A10:58,69]. And Buchdahl responds to the fact that the thing-in-itself seems to be connected with each of the other object-terms by regarding it as 'Kant's umbrella term'.[3]" Stephen Palmquist on Kant's object terms
- ^ Kant 1999, Bxxvi-xxvii.
- ^ Kant 1999, p. 273, A256, B312.
- ^ "The Radical Unknowability of Kant's 'Thing in Itself'", Cogito 3:2 (March 1985), pp.101–115; revised and reprinted as Appendix V in Stephen Palmquist, Kant's System of Perspectives (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993).
- ^ Mattey, G. J.
- ^ Lecture notes by G. J. Mattey Archived 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Kant 1999, p. 267 (NKS), A250/B307.
- ^ Kant 1999, p. 270 (NKS), B309.
- S2CID 171078596.
- ^ Kant 1999, A253/B310.
- ^ Kant 1999, p. 273, A256/B312.
- ^ Kant 1999, p. 156, B/137.
- ^ Kant 1999, p. 24, B/xx..
- ^ Rohmann, Chris. "Kant" A World of Ideas: A Dictionary of Important Theories, Concepts, Beliefs, and Thnkers. Ballantine Books, 1999.
- ^ Mattey, GJ. "Lecture Notes on the Critique of Pure Reason".
- ^ Anon., "Caird's Philosophy of Kant", Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, vol 44, Nov 3, 1877, pp. 559-60.
- ISBN 9780521871846.
Bibliography
- Kant, Immanuel (1999). Critique of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521657297.