Noumenon

In philosophy, a noumenon (/ˈnuːmənɒn/, /ˈnaʊ-/; from Greek: νοούμενoν; pl.: noumena) is knowledge[1]
posited as an object that exists independently of human sense.[2] The term noumenon is generally used in
contrast with, or in relation to, the term phenomenon, which refers to any 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.[3] In Kantian philosophy, the noumenon is
often associated with the unknowable "thing-in-itself" (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.

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 Plato, Ted Honderich writes: "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."[6]

Kantian noumena

Overview
As expressed in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, human understanding is structured by "concepts of the
understanding" or pure categories of understanding, found prior to experience in the mind and which make
outer experiences possible as counterpart to the rational faculties of the mind.[7][8]

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 transcendental aesthetic, as well as that of the transcendental
analytic, transcendental logic and transcendental deduction.[9][10][11] Taken together, Kant's "categories of
understanding" are the principles of the human mind which necessarily are brought to bear in attempting to
understand the world in which we exist (that is, to understand, or attempt to understand, "things in
themselves"). In each instance the word "transcendental" refers to the process that the human mind must
exercise to understand or grasp the form of, and order among, phenomena. Kant asserts that to "transcend"
a direct observation or experience is to use reason and classifications to strive to correlate with the
phenomena that are observed. Humans can make sense out of phenomena in these various ways, but in
doing so can never know the "things-in-themselves", the actual objects and dynamics of the natural world
in their noumenal dimension - this being the negative, correlate to phenomena and that which escapes the
limits of human understanding. By Kant's Critique, our minds may attempt to correlate in useful ways,
perhaps even closely accurate ways, with the structure and order of the various aspects of the universe, but
cannot know these "things-in-themselves" (noumena) directly. Rather, we must infer the extent to which the
human rational faculties can reach the object of "things-in-themselves" by our observations of the
manifestations of those things that can be perceived via the physical senses, that is, of phenomena, and by
ordering these perceptions in the mind help infer the validity of our perceptions to the rational categories
used to understand them in a rational system. This rational system (transcendental analytic), being the
categories of the understanding as free from empirical contingency.[12][13]

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.[15] However, Stephen Palmquist holds that "noumenon" and "thing-
in-itself" are only loosely synonymous, inasmuch as they represent the same concept viewed from two
different perspectives,[16][17] and other scholars also argue that they are not identical.[18] Schopenhauer
criticised Kant for changing the meaning of "noumenon". However, this opinion is far from unanimous.[19]
Kant's writings show points of difference between noumena and things-in-themselves. For instance, he
regards things-in-themselves as existing:

...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 definition of knowledge as "the determination of
given representations to an object".[30] As there are no appearances of these entities in the phenomenal,
Kant is able to make the claim that they cannot be known to a mind that works upon "such knowledge that
has to do only with appearances".[31] These questions are ultimately the "proper object of faith, but not of
reason".[32]

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. George Berkeley, who pre-dated Kant, asserted that matter, independent of an
observant mind, is metaphysically impossible. Qualities associated with matter, such as shape, color, smell,
texture, weight, temperature, and sound are all dependent on minds, which allow only for relative
perception, not absolute perception. The complete absence of such minds (and more importantly an
omnipotent mind) would render those same qualities unobservable and even unimaginable. Berkeley called
this philosophy immaterialism. Essentially there could be no such thing as matter without a mind.[34]

Schopenhauer's critique
Schopenhauer claimed that Kant used the word noumenon incorrectly. He explained in his "Critique of the
Kantian philosophy", which first appeared as an appendix to The World as Will and Representation:

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 Eleatics, in Plato's doctrine of Ideas, in the dialectic of
the Megarics, and later in 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. 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
a. Ontology

References
1. "Formal Epistemology" (https://plato.stanford.edu/search/r?entry=/entries/formal-epistemolog
y/&page=1&total_hits=1035&pagesize=10&archive=None&rank=7&query=Epistemology).
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
2021.
 2. "Noumenon | Definition of Noumenon by Webster's Online Dictionary" (https://web.archive.or
g/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). Archived from the original (http://www.websters-dictionary-online.org/definitions/N
oumenon) 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."
3. "noumenon | philosophy" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/noumenon). Encyclopedia
Britannica. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
4. νοεῖν (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=noe/
w), νοῦς (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=n
ou=s), νόος (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry
=no/os). Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus
Project.
5. Harper, Douglas. "noumenon" (https://www.etymonline.com/?term=noumenon). Online
Etymology Dictionary.
6. Honderich, Ted, ed. (31 August 1995). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (https://archive.
org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hond/page/657). Oxford University Press. p. 657 (https://archi
ve.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hond/page/657). ISBN 0198661320. Retrieved
28 October 2014.
7. Hanna, Robert (2009). Completing the Picture of Kant's Metaphysics of Judgment (http://plat
o.stanford.edu/entries/kant-judgment/supplement2.html). Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy.
8. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Kant's metaphysics (http://www.science.uva.nl/~seo
p/entries/kant-metaphysics/).
9. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel",
section on "Critique of Pure Reason: Theme and Preliminaries", p. 308 ff.
10. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel",
section on "Transcendental Aesthetic", p. 310 ff.
11. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Macmillan, 1967, 1996) Volume 4, "Kant, Immanuel",
section on "Pure Concepts of the Understanding", p. 311 ff.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. Kant 1999, p. 27, A256/B312.
15. 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" (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9056357/noumenon) in the Encyclopædia
Britannica
16. "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 (http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/ksp1/KSPglos.html)
17. 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 (http://www.hkbu.edu.h
k/~ppp/ksp1/KSPglos.html). 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).
18. 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.
19. "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 (http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/k
sp1/KSP6A.html)
20. Kant 1999, Bxxvi-xxvii.
21. Kant 1999, p. 273, A256, B312.
22. "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 (h
ttp://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/ksp1) (Lanham: University Press of America, 1993).
23. Mattey, G. J. (http://hume.ucdavis.edu/mattey/phi175/phenomlec.html)
24. Lecture notes by G. J. Mattey (http://www-philosophy.ucdavis.edu/mattey/kant/APPEAR.HT
M) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100612165634/http://www-philosophy.ucdavis.e
du/mattey/kant/APPEAR.HTM) 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
25. Kant 1999, p. 267 (NKS), A250/B307.
26. Kant 1999, p. 270 (NKS), B309.
27. Allison, H (2006). "Transcendental Realism, Empirical Realism, and Transcendental
Idealism" (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=295CBB027ADE6
D31BEA8AAABA8A8D8DC.journals?&aid=8201604). Kantian Review. 11: 1–28.
doi:10.1017/S1369415400002223 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS1369415400002223).
S2CID 171078596 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:171078596).
28. Kant 1999, A253/B310.
29. Kant 1999, p. 273, A256/B312.
30. Kant 1999, p. 156, B/137.
31. Kant 1999, p. 24, B/xx..
32. Rohmann, Chris. "Kant" A World of Ideas: A Dictionary of Important Theories, Concepts,
Beliefs, and Thnkers. Ballantine Books, 1999.
33. Mattey, GJ. "Lecture Notes on the Critique of Pure Reason" (http://hume.ucdavis.edu/mattey/
kant/TIILEC.HTM).
34. Anon., "Caird's Philosophy of Kant", Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art,
vol 44, Nov 3, 1877, pp. 559-60 (https://books.google.com/books?id=t_-zm4WJVCQC&pg=P
A559).
35. Schopenhauer, Arthur (2014). The World as Will and Representation, Volume 1. Translated
by Norman, Judith; Welchman, Alistair; Janaway, Christopher. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. p. 506. ISBN 9780521871846.

Bibliography
Kant, Immanuel (1999). Critique of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of
Immanuel Kant) (https://books.google.com/books?id=qqeX8MJurLkC). Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 978-0521657297.

External links
The surd of metaphysics; an inquiry into the question: Are there things-in-themselves?
(1903) (https://archive.org/details/surdofmetaphysic00caru) by Paul Carus, 1852–1919

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