Phenomena vs. Noumena
Domain: Epistemology
Canonical Formulation: ?
Possible Formulation: Phenomena are things that appear.
Phenomena in this sense are objects of sensory awareness or things displaying
themselves to the senses. A tentative example, not without its own problems,
might be a table . Noumena in this context come
then represent objects of reason or, defined negatively, things that never
appear. A tentative example may be the set of all real numbers. Plato's
Forms (a.k.a. Ideas) would be noumena in this sense because they exist
independently of whether or not such things "really" exist. Plato speaks of
both the "visible realm" (phenomena) and the "knowable realm" (noumena). For
more elaboration see Plato's Republic, Book VII, 517b-c.
Interesting Point : Do Empiricists rely upon phenomena
(knowledge from senses) while Rationalists rely on noumena (knowledge from
intellect)?
Classical Challenge: