thing-in-itself
Quick Summary
In philosophy, the "thing-in-itself" (or noumenon) refers to reality as it exists independently of our perception or understanding. Immanuel Kant, a key figure in this concept, distinguished it from the "phenomenon," which is how things appear to us. Kant argued that while we can only know phenomena through our senses and intellect, the thing-in-itself exists in an intelligible world beyond our direct knowledge.1234
Our knowledge is shaped by our minds, including forms of space and time, and categories of understanding, which we impose on sensory data. Therefore, the thing-in-itself represents the limit of our knowledge, indicating that there is a reality beyond what we can experience or comprehend. This concept has been a subject of much philosophical debate, with some thinkers questioning its knowability or even its existence.41
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KantianismNature and types of Kantianism…the Ding an sich (“thing-in-itself”), that more ultimate reality that presumably lurks behind the apprehension of an object; or with the relationship between knowledge and morality.
Read More…the Ding an sich (“thing-in-itself”), that more ultimate reality that presumably lurks behind the apprehension of an object; or with the relationship between knowledge and morality.
Read More- KantianismObjections to Kantianism
…them from the world of things-in-themselves but it also prevents them from granting objective reality to phenomena as such, inasmuch as the transcendental source is here viewed as playing a constructive role with respect to experience and the phenomenon.
Read More…them from the world of things-in-themselves but it also prevents them from granting objective reality to phenomena as such, inasmuch as the transcendental source is here viewed as playing a constructive role with respect to experience and the phenomenon.
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positivismThe critical positivism of Mach and Avenarius, of the “thing in itself”—the ultimate entities underlying phenomena, which Kant had declared to be absolutely unknowable though they must nevertheless be conceived as partial causes of human perceptions. By contrast, Hermann von Helmholtz, a wide-ranging scientist and philosopher and one of the great minds of the…
Read More, of the “thing in itself”—the ultimate entities underlying phenomena, which Kant had declared to be absolutely unknowable though they must nevertheless be conceived as partial causes of human perceptions. By contrast, Hermann von Helmholtz, a wide-ranging scientist and philosopher and one of the great minds of the…
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- noumenon
…philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the thing-in-itself (das Ding an sich) as opposed to what Kant called the phenomenon—the thing as it appears to an observer. Though the noumenal holds the contents of the intelligible world, Kant claimed that man’s speculative reason can only know phenomena and can never penetrate to…
Read More…philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the thing-in-itself (das Ding an sich) as opposed to what Kant called the phenomenon—the thing as it appears to an observer. Though the noumenal holds the contents of the intelligible world, Kant claimed that man’s speculative reason can only know phenomena and can never penetrate to…
Read More - skepticismThe 18th century
…possible to know about “things-in-themselves” or about the ultimate causes of experience.
Read More…possible to know about “things-in-themselves” or about the ultimate causes of experience.
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epistemologyImmanuel KantThat world consists of “things-in-themselves” (noumena), which do not exist in space and time and do not enter into causal relations. Because of his commitment to realism (minimal though it may have been), Kant was disturbed by Berkeley’s uncompromising idealism, which amounted to a denial of the existence of…
Read MoreThat world consists of “things-in-themselves” (noumena), which do not exist in space and time and do not enter into causal relations. Because of his commitment to realism (minimal though it may have been), Kant was disturbed by Berkeley’s uncompromising idealism, which amounted to a denial of the existence of…
Read More- transcendental idealism
…but he held that such things-in-themselves must remain forever unknown. Human knowledge cannot reach to them because knowledge can only arise in the course of synthesizing the ideas of sense.
Read More…but he held that such things-in-themselves must remain forever unknown. Human knowledge cannot reach to them because knowledge can only arise in the course of synthesizing the ideas of sense.
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