noumenon
Americannoun
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the object, itself inaccessible to experience, to which a phenomenon is referred for the basis or cause of its sense content.
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a thing in itself, as distinguished from a phenomenon or thing as it appears.
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Kantianism. something that can be the object only of a purely intellectual, nonsensuous intuition.
noun
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(in the philosophy of Kant) a thing as it is in itself, not perceived or interpreted, incapable of being known, but only inferred from the nature of experience Compare phenomenon See also thing-in-itself
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the object of a purely intellectual intuition
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Etymology
Origin of noumenon
1790–1800; < Greek nooúmenon a thing being perceived, noun use of neuter of present participle passive of noeîn to perceive; akin to nous
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Glassley tries also to grasp something beyond: the noumenon, an ineffable inner reality in things that cannot be discerned by the senses.
From Nature ● Feb. 5, 2018
At the end of the chain of phenomena the theist makes a mighty jump and gains the noumenon.
From Theism or Atheism The Great Alternative by Cohen, Chapman
Back of all phenomena, or the outward show of things, there is always a noumenon in the unseen.
From The Crest-Wave of Evolution A Course of Lectures in History, Given to the Graduates' Class in the Raja-Yoga College, Point Loma, in the College-Year 1918-19 by Morris, Kenneth
Reason and revelation declare that God is both noumenon and phenomena,—the first and only cause.
From Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 by Eddy, Mary Baker
And this meaning is retained in the Kantian philosophy, in which the noumenon is identical with the Ding an sich.
From The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Mansel, Henry Longueville
Those kinds of questions, and that kind of connection to the noumena of travel, would never arise from a downloaded file on a digital device.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2022
Nevertheless, the discovery and exposition of noumena offer a rich field for what Lewes calls "the endless variety and excitement of philosophic thought."
From The Devil's Dictionary by Bierce, Ambrose
Or, in other words, so far as human consciousness is concerned, noumena must be regarded as absolute.
From A Candid Examination of Theism by Romanes, George John
Coexistence and sequence, therefore, may be affirmed or denied not only between phenomena, but between noumena, or between a noumenon and phenomena.
From A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive (Vol. 1 of 2) by Mill, John Stuart
That is to say, it is not limited by, but rather limits, sensibility, by giving the name of noumena to things, not considered as phenomena, but as things in themselves.
From The Critique of Pure Reason by Meiklejohn, John Miller Dow
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.