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noumenon - 5 dictionary results

nou⋅me⋅non

  [noo-muh-non]
Use noumenon in a Sentence
–noun, plural -na  [-nuh] .
1. the object, itself inaccessible to experience, to which a phenomenon is referred for the basis or cause of its sense content.
2. a thing in itself, as distinguished from a phenomenon or thing as it appears.
3. Kantianism. something that can be the object only of a purely intellectual, nonsensuous intuition.
Origin:
1790–1800; < Gk nooúmenon a thing being perceived, n. use of neut. of prp. passive of noeîn to perceive; akin to nous
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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nou·me·non   (nōō'mə-nŏn')   
n.   pl. nou·me·na (-nə)
In the philosophy of Kant, an object as it is in itself independent of the mind, as opposed to a phenomenon. Also called thing-in-itself.

[German, from Greek nooumenon, from neuter present passive participle of noein, to perceive by thought, from nous, mind.]
nou'men·al (-mə-nəl) adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Noumenon

Nou"me*non\, n. [NL. fr. Gr. ? the thing perceived, p. pr. pass. of ? to perceive, ? the mind.] (Metaph.) 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 senses, and by which it is interpreted and understood; -- so used in the philosophy of Kant and his followers.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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noumenon 
1796, "object of intellectual intuition" (opposed to a phenomenon), term introduced by Kant, from Gk. noumenon "that which is perceived," neut. passive prp. of noeo "I perceive by the mind" (from noos "mind"), with passive suffix -menos.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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noumenon

in the 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 the noumenon. Man, however, is not altogether excluded from the noumenal because practical reason-i.e., the capacity for acting as a moral agent-makes no sense unless a noumenal world is postulated in which freedom, God, and immortality abide.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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