dbo:abstract
| - The noumenon (/ˈnɒuːmɨnɒn/) is a posited object or event that is known (if at all) without the use of the physical senses. The term noumenon is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to phenomenon, which refers to anything that can be apprehended by, or is an object of, the physical senses. In Platonic philosophy, the noumenal realm was equated with the world of ideas known to the philosophical mind, in contrast to the phenomenal realm, which was equated with the reality as perceived via the physical senses, as known to the uneducated mind. Much of modern philosophy has generally been skeptical of the possibility of knowledge independent of the physical senses, and Immanuel Kant gave this point of view its canonical expression: that the noumenal world may exist, but it is completely unknowable to humans. In Kantian philosophy, the unknowable noumenon is often linked to the unknowable %22thing-in-itself%22 (Ding an sich, which could also be rendered as %22thing as such%22 or %22thing per se%22), although how to characterize the nature of the relationship is a question yet open to some controversy.
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